the disposition of its walls and angles; the chemist engaged to protect it against the influence of atmospheric causes, to guard it from the tempest and avert from it the lightning. The poet and the painter lavished the perfection of their art upon it; one covered its interior with pictures of every natural beauty, whilst the other exhausted language in their description. Like this is the one great family to which the learned of all nations belong; it is the unison of many notes producing a perfect harmony, not the monotonous tinkling of one by some self-sufficient dreamer who considers all the rest harsh and untunable. Philosophy is not to be considered in the light in which Romeo viewed it; we must not cry "Hang up philosophy, unless philosophy can make a Juliet." In the beautiful expression of Florian, "The sons of science should resemble those brilliant flowers which, although dispersed in various climates, compose but one single family." [We cannot publish Mr. Langston Parker's fifth and concluding Paper on the Imagination, without thanking the talented author for the gratification he has afforded the readers of The Analyst by this delightful Course of Lectures.-EDS.] SWARM OF MINUTE INSECTS IN AND AROUND MACCLESFIELD. THE gloomy, cheerless, and almost wintry weather which prevailed throughout the greater part of September was suddenly succeeded, on the morning of the 24th, by a gleam of delightful warmth, reminding us of the most enjoyable days of summer. The wind blew softly from the south, the sun shone with the vigour of July, and the remnant of the preceding cold air lingering within our houses presented a singular contrast with the genial zephyrs which welcomed the opener of a door or a window. Those who were early risers on the above Saturday morning must have observ– ed the moist accumulation of vapour on the outside surface of their window panes, consequent on this change of temperature. The glass, being an indifferent conductor of heat, for a time retained the internal chill derived from the previous unseasonable state of the air, and condensed from the southern-borne breezes the aqueous particles they abundantly contained; as was sufficiently evinced by the copious discharge of rain which fell in the latter part of Tuesday, the 27th of September. Few are aware of the extraordinary and striking effects produced by these sudden atmospheric variations, affecting very intimately the economy of animal and vegetable life, and possibly, to a considerable degree, the inanimate world also, associated, as they are now proved to be, with vibrations of electric or galvanic agency.* To what extent, or by what precise process, the above causes, separately or conjointly, operated in the production of the entomological phenomenon about to be noticed, occurring on Sunday the 25th, and partially on the Monday following, when the weather was cooler, and again on the Tuesday till the rain fell, it is impossible to say; but to this sudden change was unquestionably attributable the unprecedented swarm of minute insects, which, literally speaking, almost filled the air on the days above mentioned. Over what probable area it extended must be a matter of conjecture, but there is abundant evidence of this dense body occupying a space of at least twelve miles in length between Macclesfield and Knutsford, and about four in width, or in round numbers about fifty square miles. I am speaking now of this immediate neighbourhood, where the phenomenon came more directly under my observation; but from York, Doncaster, Chester, Leeds, Buxton, and other places considerably distant, notices have been received of a similar out-pouring of this insect world; which, however, seems to have appeared in partial masses, depending, in all probability, on streams of air of higher or lower temperature. But to return to my own immediate neighbourhood. If we assign half a dozen of these insects to a square foot-and we are sure we are speaking much within the mark, as the testimony of hundreds will vouch for on a moderate computation not less than seventeen hundred millions (or about twenty times the number of the whole human population of the globe) of these tiny beings, each gifted with instinctive qualities, each furnished with a beautiful and perfect adaptation of physical structure for the purposes of its existence, were thus brought into visible life in the space of a few hours. Such an accession of vitality, as a matter of mere curiosity, cannot but be interesting, knowing so little as we do of the secret mode by which "the lord and giver of life" calls into action the elemental princi *The air denoted considerable electric action towards the beginning and middle of the week. On Wednesday there was much thunder and lightning. ples of animation, from man to the mollusca, " from the dust of the earth." But in the present instance the phenomenon assumes not a less interesting, but a somewhat more alarming, aspect, when it is ascertained that the mighty mass, for it was all one and the same, not only in genus but in species, was composed of a family of insects which, if unchecked and unlimited in their ravages, would produce a desolation in our woods and forests, fruits and flowers, more fatally and permanently destructive than any Egyptian plague on record. For be it known that these countless myriads were neither more or less than the representative body of a formidable and fearful blight; against which, where it once obtains firm footing, human means have hitherto been found useless and unavailing. The insect belonged to the class Hemiptera, and to the genus Aphis, commonly known by the name of Plant Louse, and familiar to all, on the rose trees, as those small wingless insects, which cluster together on the stems, usually just beneath the bud or the flowers, and on the larch, apple, and many other fruit trees, as the downy, soft clammy mites, which abound more or less, according to the prevailing character of the season. There are about one hundred known genera of this pestiferous breed, of which about fifty, we are sorry to say, have found a legitimate place, as indigenous or naturalized (for some of the worst have been imported from America or elsewhere) in Great Britain. The species which has led to these remarks, by its abrupt and multitudinous intrusion, is a beautiful subject for microscopic examination when exposed to strong solar light, for otherwise they appear to be nearly black. The wings, four in number, were perfectly transparent, rather irridescent, and with few reticulations. The head and thorax black, the metothoracic scutum marked with two bright orange bands. The eyes globular and prominent. The antennæ filiform, or of equal thickness, consisting of eight or nine articulations, the terminal one rather attenuating at the point. From the jaws a proboscis projected, which bent down so closely as to be nearly hidden under the thorax, and was not easily seen. The legs were six in number, of a tawny colour, with the exception of the thicker part of the tibia, which was black; the remainder of the tibia, and the whole of the tarsus being also semi-transparent; the latter was also partially furnished with short bristles; at the extremity of the abdomen was a short tubular horn; the colour of the abdomen was of a pale yellowish green and black, in lateral stripes.-Without very correct plates, or cabinets of reference, it would be hazardous to assign the exact specific name, but in description, it allied itself so nearly, with one too well known, Aphis pruni, or common plum blight of the spring, that it might be almost identified with that species. Of all classes of insects that of the Aphis assuredly presents the most singular and peculiar properties. While some are winged, others are not so, and this without distinction of age or sex. In the early part of the year they are viviparous, or producing their young alive; whereas, in the autumn, they are oviparous, or layers of eggs, which remain throughout the winter; but by a surprising aberration from the common laws of nature, it appears, that one impregnation of the female is sufficient for seven, certainly, and it is suspected of many more, generations; that is to say, that the first female will lay eggs, productive of other females, laying their eggs, and successively productive of seven or more broods; and when it is further known that in five generations, one single Aphis may thus be the parent of nearly six hundred million descendents, well may our foresters, nurserymen, and gardeners, tremble at the bare possibility of the stupendous influx we are now noticing, each carrying on its prolific capabilities without check or restraint, by which in the early part of next spring, such an appalling pestilence may be turned loose to make a barren wilderness of our gardens and pleasure grounds. But Nature-ever provident and circumspectfor the possible evil, has provided various checks, each or all of which, are ever at work in neutralizing the devastating effects which might otherwise ensue from similar causes. We have alluded to the operation in ceaseless action of meteorological and electro-magnetic agency. But if with them the disorder originates, by them also is the remedy provided, and the equilibrium of general utility and advantage restored. These little insects which germed into life so suddenly, were (if we may so designate them) children of the sunbeam; let it withdraw its invigorating radiance, let the winds blow but for an hour from a less genial quarter, and the thermometer fall but a few degrees,-they vanish,-their place is seen no more,and their mass, the slight framework of an ephemeral existence, again becomes a compound of unorganized matter, ready, however, again at any appointed time, once more to become the recipient of animal or vegetable life, obedient to the summons, and according as it is acted upon by the fiat of Omnipotence. S. THE POET SHENSTONE. THE biographies of eminent men are too frequently made up of mere fulsome eulogies on their virtues, or bitter and harsh declamations against their vices; qualities, portions of which will be found inherent and mingled in all characters, but which in these instances are exaggerated and painted with an overloaded pencil, to gratify and tickle the whimsical and capricious palate of a false public taste. Their real characters, their habits, and train of thought, their real opinions, and the real motives of those actions of which alone the world can have cognizance, can never be ascertained with any certainty from such compositions. Whatever, therefore, has a tendency to afford us data by which to judge of the talents, the taste, the intellectual cultivation and acquirements of men eminent in their generation, cannot fail of proving acceptable to every sincere and honest inquirer after truth. In the library of the late Mr. David Parkes, of Shrewsbury, were many delightful memorials of the elegant-minded Shenstone, and among these a copy of Prior's Poems, 5th edition, 3 vols., London, 1733, with a portrait prefixed, which originally belonged to the poet, and which was peculiarly interesting, as containing memoranda of his having perused the volumes with critical attention, marking each poem with a certain number of crosses, indicative of the degree of excellence which he conceived each to possess. On the fly leaves of the first volume are the following observations, in Shenstone's hand-writing : "Des livres Du Guill. Shenstone a Oxon. 1735." "November the 26th, 1739.-Read over all Prior's Works a second time, marking the pieces I most admired with a proportionate number of crosses." "Prior's Cloe was a cheerful, gay, facetious old woman, that used to laugh with a profusion of good humour until she was almost ready to die, at the conceit of her being a poet's flame. And Prior, we may be sure, was equally delighted with the excellence of her understanding. See the Critick on Vanessa, in Swift's Works, vol. vi." |