Puslapio vaizdai
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Of all the solitary insects1 I have ever remarked, the spider is the most sagacious, and its actions, to me, who have attentively considered them, seem almost to exceed belief. This insect is formed by nature for a state of war, not only upon other insects, but upon each other. For this state, na

arly well ca have formed it Its head and breast are covered with a strong natural coat of mail, which is impenetrable to the attempts of every other insect, and its belly is enveloped in a soft pliant skin, which eludes the sting even of a wasp. Its legs are terminated by strong' claws, not unlike those of the lobster; and their vast length, like spears, serve to keep every assailant at a distance.

Not worse furnished for observation than for an attack or defence, it has several eyes, large, transparent, and covered with a horny substance, which, however, does not impede its vision. Besides this, it is furnished with a forceps above the mouth, which serves to kill or secure the prey already caught in its claws or its net.

Such are the implements of war with which the body is immediately furnished; but its net to entangle the enemy

1 Insects are so denominated from the apparent division of their bodies, as if they were intersected or cut into parts. (Lat. secare, to cut). They have three principal parts, the head, the thorax, and the abdomen. They have in general six or more legs, besides wings and antennae or instruments of touch; and they nearly all go through certain great changes at different periods of their existence. For example, a caterpillar, after feeding upon leaves till it is fully grown, casts off its caterpillar skin and presents itself in an entirely different form, wherein it has neither the power of moving about or of taking food,-this is its second or chrysalis state. After resting awhile, an inward struggle begins,-the chrysalis skin bursts, and from the rent there issues a butterfly, provided with wings to bear it away in search of the honeyed juice of flowers and other liquids that suffice for its nourishment.

seems to be what it chiefly trusts to, and what it takes most pains to render as complete as possible. Nature has furnished the body of this little creature with a glutinous liquid, which, proceeding from the lower extremity of the body, it spins into a thread, coarser or finer as it chooses to contract its sphincter. In order to fix its threads when it begins to weave, it emits a small drop of its liquid against the wall, which hardening by degrees, serves to hold the thread very firmly. Then receding from the first point, as it recedes, the thread lengthens; and when the spider has come to the place where the other end of the thread should be fixed, gathering up with its claws the thread, which would otherwise be too slack, it is stretched tightly, and fixed in the same manner to the wall as before.

In this manner it spins and fixes several threads parallel to each other, which, so to speak, serves as the warp to the intended web. To form the woof, it spins in the same manner its thread, transversely fixing one end to the first thread that was spun, and which is always the strongest of the whole web, and the other to the wall. All these threads being newly spun, are glutinous, and therefore stick to each other, whereever they happen to touch; and in those parts of the web most exposed to be torn, our natural artist strengthens them, by doubling the thread sometimes six-fold.

Thus far, naturalists have gone in the description of this animal: what follows is the result of my own observation upon that species of the insect called the house-spider. I perceived, about four years ago, a large spider in one corner of my room, making its web, and though the maid frequently levelled her fatal broom against the labours of the little animal, I had the good fortune then to prevent its destruction, and, I may say, it more than paid me by the entertainment it afforded.

In three days the web was with incredible diligence completed; nor could I avoid thinking that the insect seemed to exult in its new abode. It frequently traversed it round, and examined the strength of every part of it, retired into its hole, and came out very frequently. The first enemy, however, it had to encounter, was another and a much larger spider, which having no web of its own, and having probably exhausted all its stock in former labours of this kind, came to invade the property of its neighbour. Soon, then, a terrible

encounter ensued, in which the invader seemed to have the victory, and the laborious spider was obliged to take refuge in its hole. Upon this I perceived the victor using every art to draw the enemy from his stronghold. He seemed to go off, but quickly returned, and when he found all arts vain, began to demolish the new web without mercy. This brought on another battle, and contrary to my expectations, the laborious spider became conqueror, and fairly killed his antagonist.

Now then, in peaceable possession of what was justly its own, it waited three days with the utmost impatience, repairing the breaches of its web, and taking no sustenance that I could perceive. At last, however, a large blue fly fell into the snare, and struggled hard to get loose. The spider gave it leave to entangle itself as much as possible, but it seemed to be too strong for the cobweb. I must own I was greatly surprised when I saw the spider immediately sally out, and in less than a minute weave a net round its captive, by which the motion of its wings was stopped, and when it was fairly hampered in this manner, it was seized and dragged into the hole.

In this manner it lived, in a precarious state, and nature seemed to have fitted it for such a life; for upon a single fly it subsisted for more than a week. I once put a wasp into the nest, but when the spider came out in order to seize it as usual, upon perceiving what kind of an enemy it had to deal with, it instantly broke all the bands that held it fast, and contributed all that lay in its power to disengage so formidable an antagonist. When the wasp was at liberty, I expected the spider would have set about repairing the breaches that were made in its net; but those, it seems, were irreparable, wherefore the cobweb was now entirely forsaken, and a new one begun, which was completed in the usual

time.

I had now a mind to try how many cobwebs a single spider could furnish; wherefore I destroyed this, and the insect set about another. When I destroyed the other also, its whole stock seemed entirely exhausted, and it could spin no more. The arts it made use of to support itself, now deprived of its great means of subsistence, were indeed surprising. I have seen it roll up its legs like a ball, and lie motionless for hours together, but cautiously watching all the time; when a fly

happened to approach sufficiently near, it would dart out all at once, and often seize its prey.

Of this life, however, it soon began to grow weary, and resolved to invade the possession of some other spider, since it could not make a web of its own. It formed an attack upon a neighbouring fortification, with great vigour, and at first was as vigorously repulsed. Not daunted, however, with one defeat, in this manner it continued to lay siege to another's web for three days, and at length, having killed the defendant, actually took possession. When smaller flies happen to fall into the snare, the spider does not sally out at once, but very patiently waits till it is sure of them; for upon his immediately approaching, the terror of his appearance might give the captive strength sufficient to get loose; the manner then is to wait patiently till, by ineffectual and impotent struggles, the captive has wasted all his strength, and then he becomes a certain and easy conquest.

The insect I am now describing lived three years; every year it changed its skin, and got a new set of legs. At first it dreaded my approach to its web; but at last it became so familiar as to take a fly out of my hand, and upon my touching any part of the web, would immediately leave its hole, prepared either for a defence or an attack.-Goldsmith.

1. Do spiders live in companies or societies like bees?

2. For what sort of life has nature formed the spider?

3. Describe it as to its head and breast, its belly, its legs, its eyes, its mouth.

4. But what does it chiefly trust in, to capture its prey?

5. With what is it provided to make its net?

6. How can it make the thread thicker or thinner?

7. How does it fasten the thread to the wall?

8. What threads may be called the warp of its web?

9. How does it form the woof?

10. What does our little weaver do with parts that are more exposed to accidents? 11. Was Dr. Goldsmith well repaid for preserving the spider from the maid's broom?

12. How long did it take to weave its web?

13. Who was its first enemy, and what probably brought him there?

14. Describe the encounter, and the issue of it.

15. How did it spend the first three days after the battle?

16. What creature came next into the net?

17. How did the spider act when it saw the fly would be likely to get away?

18. Can the supply of such a creature's food be regular?

19. How long did it subsist sometimes on a fly ?

20. How did the spider act when the wasp was put into its net?

21. What did it do with the web destroyed by the wasp?

22. When unable to spin another web for itself, how did it find food?

23. How did it find another web? 24. What is its manner of procedure when small flies fall into its net? 25. How long did it live, and what about its skin?

26. Why are insects so denominated? 27. Name the three principal parts of their bodies.

28. What are antennae ?

29. Tell me about the changes of the caterpillar.

30. What glorious gospel doctrine is illustrated by these changes?

31. Who only may expect a joyful resurrection ?

X.-THE VOLCANO AND THE EARTHQUAKE.

LATIN.

Vin-dic'tive, adj.........vindex.
Be nev'o-lence, n........bene, velle.
Pe'nal, adj................poena.
Vent, n................... .......ventus.
Sub-ter-ra'ne-an, adj...terra.
Ves'tige, n................vestigium.
E-ruption, n.............rupĕre.
Ad-mon'ish, v............monēre.
Ex-clud'ing, part........claudĕre.
Lu'min-ous, adj.........lumen.
Ex-plo'sions, n...........plaudere.
Sur-vived', v..........
Ex-hi-bi'tions, n.........................habēre.

.vivĕre.

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THE first impression made on the mind by the history of volcanic action is, that its effects are examples rather of vindictive justice than of benevolence. And such is the light in which they are regarded by Mr. Gisborne, an able English divine, in his “ Testimony of Natural to Revealed Religion." He looks, indeed, upon all the disturbances that have taken place in the earth's crust as evidence of a fallen condition of the world, as mementos of a former penal infliction upon a guilty race. And aside from the light which geology casts upon the subject, this would be a not improbable conclusion. Take for an example the case of volcanoes and earthquakes.

A volcano is an opening made in the earth's crust by internal heat, which has forced melted or heated matter through the vent. An earthquake is the effect of the confined gases and vapours, produced by the heat upon the crust. When the volcano, therefore, gets vent, the earthquake always ceases. But the latter has generally been more destructive of life and property than the former. Where one city has been destroyed by lava, like Herculaneum,' Pompeii, and Stabiæ, twenty have been shaken down by the rocking and heaving of earthquakes. The records of ancient as well as modern times abound with examples of these tremendous catastrophes.

1 Herculaneum. Pompeii, and Stabiæ, were overwhelmed by an eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, in the reign of the Roman Emperor Titus, A.D. 79. They have been rediscovered, and in them found statues, paintings, bronzes, vases, and domestic implements of all varieties of forms and uses. The Elder Pliny, the celebrated Roman Historian, in going too near to examine the phenomena of the eruption, and also to afford relief to the sufferers, unfortunately perished.

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