BEAUTY OF INSECTS.

BSERVE the insect race, ordained to keep
The lazy Sabbath of a half-year's sleep.
Entombed beneath the filmy web they lie,
And wait the influence of a kinder sky.

When vernal sunbeams pierce their dark retreat,

The heaving tomb distends with vital heat;
The full-formed brood, impatient of their cell,
Start from their trance, and burst their silken shell.
Trembling awhile they stand, and scarcely dare
To launch at once upon the untried air.

At length assured, they catch the favouring gale,
And leave their sordid spoils, and high in ether sail.

Lo! the bright train their radiant wings unfold,
With silver fringed, and freckled o'er with gold.
On the gay bosom of some fragrant flower,
They, idly fluttering, live their little hour;
Their life all pleasure, and their task all play,
All spring their age, and sunshine all their day.
Not so the child of sorrow, wretched man:
His course with toil concludes, with pain began,
No. 144.

I

Hall, Langham Place; St James's Hall, Piccadilly; South London, London Road; Islington Philharmonic, Islington; Weston's, High Holborn; Willis's Rooms, King Street, St James's.

*

Exhibitions of various kinds.-Agricultural Hall, Islington; Botanic Gardens, Regent's Park; * British Museum, Great Russell Street; Crystal Palace, Sydenham ; *Dulwich Picture Gallery; Gallery of Illustration, Regent Street; * Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn Street; *National Gallery, Trafalgar Square; *National Portrait Gallery, Exhibition Road, South Kensington; Royal Academy, Burlington House, Piccadilly; Royal Albert Hall of Science, Kensington Road (not finished, 1870); Royal Horticultural Gardens, South Kensington; Polytechnic Institution, Regent Street; South Kensington Museum; Madame Tussaud's Exhibition, Baker Street; Zoological Gardens, Regent's Park; *Sir John Soane's Museum, Lincoln's Inn Fields (open free on about sixty days in the year); *East India Museum, India Office, Whitehall; *Houses of Parliament, principal portions (Saturdays); Gallery of Painters in Water Colours, Pall Mall East; Gallery of British Artists, Suffolk Street; French Picture Gallery, Pall Mall; British Institution, Pall Mall; * Guildhall Museum; * London Missionary Museum, Bloomfield Street, Finsbury; *Flaxman Sculptures, University College, Gower Street; Tower of London, Armoury, and Crown jewels; United Service Museum, Whitehall Yard; * Patent Office Museum, South Kensington; *Museum of Naval Models, South Kensington.

32

Westminster

Bridge

BEAUTY OF INSECTS.

BSERVE the insect race, ordained to keep
The lazy Sabbath of a half-year's sleep.
Entombed beneath the filmy web they lie,
And wait the influence of a kinder sky.

When vernal sunbeams pierce their dark retreat,

The heaving tomb distends with vital heat;
The full-formed brood, impatient of their cell,
Start from their trance, and burst their silken shell.
Trembling awhile they stand, and scarcely dare
To launch at once upon the untried air.

At length assured, they catch the favouring gale,
And leave their sordid spoils, and high in ether sail.

Lo! the bright train their radiant wings unfold,
With silver fringed, and freckled o'er with gold.
On the gay bosom of some fragrant flower,
They, idly fluttering, live their little hour;
Their life all pleasure, and their task all play,
All spring their age, and sunshine all their day.
Not so the child of sorrow, wretched man:
His course with toil concludes, with pain began,
No. 144.

That his high destiny he might discern,
And in misfortune's school this lesson learn—
Pleasure's the portion of the inferior kind;
But glory, virtue, Heaven for man designed.

What atom forms of insect life appear!
And who can follow Nature's pencil here?
Their wings with azure, green, and purple glossed,
Studded with coloured eyes, with gems embossed,
Inlaid with pearl, and marked with various stains
Of lively crimson, through their dusky veins.
Some shoot like living stars athwart the night,
And scatter from their wings a vivid light,
To guide the Indian to his tawny loves,

As through the woods with cautious step he moves.
See the proud giant of the beetle race,

With shining arms his polished limbs enchase!
Like some stern warrior formidably bright,
His steely sides reflect a gleaming light;
On his large forehead spreading horns he wears,
And high in air the branching antlers bears;
O'er many an inch extends his wide domain,
And his rich treasury swells with hoarded grain.

-MRS BARBAULD.

THE ANT.-INDUSTRY.

THESE emmets, how little they are in our eyes!
We tread them to dust, and a troop of them dies,
Without our regard or concern:

Yet as wise as we are, if sent to their school,
There's many a sluggard and many a fool
Some lessons of wisdom might learn.

They don't wear their time out in sleeping or play,
But gather up corn in a sunshiny day,

And for winter they lay up their stores;

They manage their work in such regular forms,

One would think they foresaw all the frosts and the storms,
And so brought their food within doors.

But I have less sense than a poor creeping ant,
If I take not due care for the things I shall want,
Nor provide against dangers in time;
When death and old age shall stare in my face,
What a wretch shall I be in the end of my days,
If I trifle away all their prime !

Now, now while my strength and my youth are in bloom, Let me think what shall save me when sickness shall come, And pray that my sins be forgiven.

Let me read in good books, and believe, and obey,

That when death turns me out of this cottage of clay,

I may dwell in a palace in heaven.

-DR WATTS.

TO THE CICADA.

HAPPY insect! blithe and gay,
Seated on the sunny spray,

And drunk with dew, the leaves among,
Singing sweet thy chirping song.

All the various season's treasures,
All the products of the plains,
Thus lie open to thy pleasures,
Favourite of the rural swains.

On thee the Muses fix their choice,
And Phoebus adds his own,
Who first inspired thy lively voice,
And tuned thy pleasing tone.

Thy cheerful note in wood and vale
Fills every heart with glee;

And Summer smiles with double charms
While thus proclaimed by thee.

Like gods canst thou the nectar sip,
A lively chirping elf;

From labour free, and free from care,

A little god thyself!

-ANACREON.

TO A FLY.

PRITHEE, little buzzing fly,
Eddying round my taper, why
Is it that its quivering light
Dazzling captivates your sight?
Bright my taper is, 'tis true;
Trust me, 'tis too bright for you.
'Tis a flame, fond thing, beware--
'Tis a flame you cannot bear.