and the gaieté de cœur, with which the race of existence is commenced, and the disappointment that must necessarily ensue, when it is discovered how utterly incompetent age is to answer the expectations which the credulity of youth had so heedlessly formed,* When a man, upon the verge of the grave, takes a retrospective view of his life, and reflects upon the buoyancy of spirit with which he first entered upon its career, "when all went merry as a marriage bell," and contrasts it with his present blighted feelings and ruined hopes,---hopes, the realization of which was only not impossible, he is apt "to curse the present as the cause of ill," and to ascribe the disappointment of his views to the alteration which the times have been undergoing. But why the period in which our ancestors lived should be preferred to our own, does not seem so easy of solution; unless it arises from the superior influence which present events exercise over present sensations. We are feelingly alive to the calamities with which we now happen to be afflicted, and attach, perhaps, more weight to them than they deserve; whilst we learn, only through the medium of report and the obscurity of distance, the evils which our predecessors endured. Things present," says Harris, "make impressions amazingly superior to things remote; so that, in objects of every kind, we are easily mistaken as to their comparitive magnitude. Upon the canvass of the same picture, a near sparrow occupies the space of the distant eagle, a near mole-hill that of a distant mountain." Thus it is, that events removed, either by distance of time or place, from our observation, do not so forcibly * See Mr. G. J. De Wilde's "Castles in the Air," P. M. p. 45, where the fallacy of youthful expectation is ably pointed out. strike the mind as those which have a more immedi ate reference to our own personal safety or inconvenience; and, for this reason, I do not believe that there exists the man who would not be more shocked with the idea of having his own hand struck off, than he would be by hearing an account of the destruction of a million of human beings in some distant quarter of the world. R. W. THE RAVEN AND THE FOX. FROM THE GERMAN OF LESSING. A RAVEN held in his claws a piece of poisoned meat, which an enraged gardener had prepared for his neighbours' cats, and was on the point of returning to an ancient oak, in order to devour his prize, when a crafty fox, passing by, called out to him, "Be bountiful to me, bird of Jove!" "For whom do you take me, then?" said the raven. "For whom do I take you? are you not the mighty eagle, who, leaving the right hand of Jupiter, alight daily upon this oak, to feed me, who am hungry? Why do you conceal yourself? Do I not see in your victorious talons the compassionate gift which Jupiter continues to send me by you?" The raven was amazed, and rejoiced inwardly at being taken for an eagle. "I must not undeceive the fox," thought he, and with a stupid generosity he let fall his prey, and proudly flew away. The fox caught the meat, and ate it with a malicious pleasure; but his joy was soon changed into the most poignant anguish; the poison began to operate, and he expired. May the odious flatterer be ever rewarded for his adulation by poisoned gifts. F. MA. Lucanus Cervus. AN INTRODUCTION TO ENTOMOLOGY. "EVEN this happy island, so remarkably distinguished by its exemption from most of those scourges to which other nations are exposed, was once alarmed by the appearance of locusts. In 1748, they were observed here in considerable numbers, but provi dentially they soon perished without propagating. These were evidently stragglers from the vast swarms which in the preceding year did such infinite damage in Wallachia, Moldavia, Transylvania, Hungary, and Poland. One of these swarms which entered Transylvania in August, was several hundred fathoms in width, (at Vienna the breadth of one of them was three miles) and extended to so great a length as to be four hours in passing over the Red Tower; and such was its density that it totally intercepted the solar light so that when they flew low one person could not see another at the distance of twenty paces. A similar account has been given to me by a friend of mine long resident in India. He relates that when at Poonah, he was witness to an immense army of locusts, which ravaged the Mahratta country, and was supposed to come from Arabia; (this, if correct, is a strong proof of their power to pass the sea under favourable circumstances.) The column they composed, my friend was informed, extended five hundred miles; and so compact was it, when on the wing, that, like an eclipse, it completely hid the sun, so that no shadow was cast by any object, and some lofty tombs, distant from his residence not more than two hundred yards, were rendered quite invisible. This was not the Gryllus migratorius, but a red species; which circumstance much increased the horror of the scene; for, clustering upon the trees after they had stripped them of their foliage, they imparted to them a sanguine hue. The peach was the last tree that they touched. "Dr. Clarke, to give some idea of the infinite number of these animals, compares them to a flight of snow, when the flakes are carried obliquely by the wind. They covered his carriage and horses, and the Tartars assert that people are even suffocated by them. The whole face of nature might have been described as covered by a living veil. They consisted of two species, Gryllus tataricus and migratorius; the first is almost twice the size of the second, and, because it precedes it, is called by the Tartars the herald or messenger. The account of another traveller (Mr. Barrow) of their ravages in the southern parts of Africa, in 1784 and 1797, is still more striking an area of nearly two thousand square miles might be said literally to be covered with them. When driven into the sea by a N. W. wind, they formed upon the shore, for fifty miles, a bank three or four feet high, and when the wind was S. E. the stench was so powerful as to be smelt at the distance of a hundred and fifty miles. "From 1778 to 1780 the empire of Morocco was terribly devastated by them; every green thing was eaten up, not even the bitter bark of the orange and pomegranate escaping: a most dreadful famine ensued. The poor were seen to wander over the country, deriving a miserable subsistence from the roots of plants; and women and children followed the camels, from whose dung they picked the indigested grains of barley, which they devoured with avidity. In consequence of this, vast numbers perished, and the roads and streets exhibited the unburied carcases of the dead. On this sad occasion, fathers sold their children and husbands their wives. When they visit a country, says Mr. Jackson, speaking of the same empire, it behoves every one to lay in provision for a famine, for they stay from three to seven years. When they have devoured all other vegetables, they attack the trees, consuming first the leaves, and then the bark. From Mogador to Tangier, before the plague in 1799, the face of the earth was covered by them. At that time a singular incident occurred at El Araiche. The whole region, from the confines |