provisions; for, although, during the cold of our winters in this country, they remain, for the most part, in a state of torpidity, and have no need of food, yet in warmer regions, during the rainy seasons, when they are probably confined to their nests, a store of provision may be necessary for them. Even in northern climates, against wet seasons, they may provide in this way for their sustenance and that of their young brood, which, as Mr. Smeatham observes, are very voracious, and cannot bear to be long deprived of their food; else why do ants carry worms, living insects, and mány other such things into their nests?

Solomon's lesson to the sluggard has generally been adduced as a strong confirmation of the ancient opinion; it can, however, only relate to the species of a warm climate, the habits of which are probably different from those of a cold one; so that his words, as commonly interpreted, may be perfectly correct and consistent with nature, and yet be not at all applicable to the species of ant indigenous to Europe. But if Solomon's remarks are properly considered, it will be found that this interpretation has been fathered upon them, rather than fairly deduced from them. He does not affirm that the ant, which he proposes to his sluggard as an example, laid up in her magazine stores of grain; but that with considerable prudence and foresight, she makes use of the proper season to collect a supply of provision sufficient for her purposes. There is not a word in them implying that she stores up grain or other provision. She prepares her bread, and gathers her food, namely, such food as is suited to her, in summer and harvest-that is, when it is most plentiful; and thus shows her wisdom and prudence by using the advantages offered to her. The words, thus interpreted, which they may be without any violence, will apply to the species among us as well as to those that are not indigenous.

In several parts of the east there is a species of this insect which is ex.remely destructive to almost every kind of property, and which may perhaps help to illustrate Matt. vi. 18, 19, although the insect there spoken of, is belonging to another genus. We quote the following from Forbes''Oriental Memoirs.'

'The termites, or white ants of Bombay, are so numerous and destructive at Anjengo, that it is difficult to guard against their depredations: in a few hours they will demolish a large chest of books, papers, silk, or clothes, perforating them with a thousand holes. We dare not leave a box on the floor without placing it on glass bottles, which, if kept free from dust, they cannot ascend. But this is trifling when compared with the serious mischief they sometimes occasion, by penetrating the beams of a house, or destroying the timbers in a ship. These destructive animals advance by myriads to their work, under an arched incrustation of fine sand, tempered with a moisture from their body, which renders the covert way as hard as burnt clay, and effectually conceals them while at their insidious employment.

"I could mention many curious instances of depredation by the

termites: one happened to myself. I left Anjengo in the rainy season, to pass a few weeks with the chief, at his country house at Eddova, in a rural and sheltered situation: on my departure I locked up a room, containing books, drawings, and a few valuables: as I took the key with me the servant could not enter to clean the furniture: the walls of the room were white-washed, adorned with prints and drawings, in English frames and glasses; returning home in the evening, and taking a cursory view of my cottage by candlelight, I found every thing apparently in the same order as I left it; but on a nearer inspection the next morning, I observed a nuinber of advanced works, in various directions, towards my pictures; the glasses appeared to be uncommonly dull, and the frames covered with dust on attempting to wipe it off, I was astonished to find the glasses fixed to the wall, not suspended in frames as I left them, but completely surrounded by an incrustation cemented by the white-ants, who had actually eaten up the deal frames and back boards, and the greater part of the paper, and left the glasses upheld by the incrustations, or covered way, which they had formed durng their depredation. From the flat Dutch bottles, on which the drawers and boxes were placed, not having been wiped during my absence, the ants had ascended the bottles by means of the dust, eaten through the bottom of a chest, and made some progress in perforating the books and linen. The chief's lady, with whom I had been staying at Eddova, on returning to her apartments in the fort, found, from the same cause, a large chest, in which she had deposited shawls, muslius, and other articles, collected preparatory to her leaving India, entirely destroyod by these voracious insects.'

THE LOCUST.

THIS is certainly the most terrible and destructive insect with which we are acquainted, and the immense numbers in which they collect when undertaking a predatory expedition, often renders it impossible to put a stop to their ravages, which in such cases terminate in the most complete desolation.

The locust, of which there are many species, has several names in the Hebrew Scriptures, each of which is characteristic of some feature in its nature or manners.

The great brown locust, which is the one with which we are best acquainted, is about three inches in length, has two horns or feelers about an inch long, and two pair of wings: the back is protected by a shield of a greenish color; and its general form much resembles that of a common grasshopper.

On several occasions these formidable creatures have been used as a scourge in the hand of the incensed Majesty of heaven for chastising a guilty world. Among the plagues which the perverse and impious conduct of the haughty Pharaoh brought upon his country, was a swarm of locusts, which covered the face of the whole land, so that the earth was darkened; and they devoured every green herb of the earth, and the fruit of every tree which the hail had left. Nothing green remained either on the trees or on the herbs of the earth, throughout the whole land of Egypt.' Exod. x. 15. A similar calamity happened to the Africans in the time of the Romans, and about one hundred and twenty-three years before Christ. An immense number of locusts covered the whole country, consumed every plant and blade of grass in the fields, without sparing the roots and the leaves of the trees, with the tendrils upon which they grew. These being exhausted, they penetrated with their teeth the bark, however bitter, and even caroded the dry and solid timber. After they had accomplished this terrible destruction, a sudden blast of wind dispersed them into different portions, and after tossing them awhile in the air, plunged their innumerable hosts into the sea. But the deadly scourge was not then at an end; the raging billows threw up enormous heaps of

their dead and corrupted bodies, upon that long extended coast, which produced a most insupportable and poisonous stench. This soon brought on a pestilence, which affected every species of animals; so that birds, and sheep, and cattle, and even the wild beasts of the field, perished in great numbers; and their carcasses, being soon rendered putrid by the foulness of the air, added greatly to the general corruption. The destruction of the human species was horrible; in Numidia, where at that time Micipsa was king, eighty thousand persons died; and in that part of the sea coast which bordered upon the region of Carthage and Utica, two hundred thousand are said to have been carried off by this pestilence. The immense number in which locusts migrate, is spoken of by several travellers of respectability. Mr. Brown, in his travels in Africa, says, 'An area of nearly two thousand square miles might be said to be literally covered by them.' Mr. Forbes states, that when at Barodha, in India, where the locust is not near so perricious as in Africa and Arabia, he saw a flight of them extending above a mile in length, and half as much in breadth; they appeared, as the sun was in the meridian, like a black cloud at a distance. As they approached from the east, the density of the host obscured the solar rays, cast an awful gloom, like that of an eclipse, over the garden where he was, and caused a noise like a rushing of a torrent. They were near an hour in passing over the spot. In Kirby and Spence's Entomology it is said, that one of the swarms which entered Transylvania, in August, 1748, 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.

These extracts, which might be greatly multiplied, will show the propriety of the Scripture references to the numerical strength of the locust armies. See Judg. vi. 5; vii. 12; Psalm cv. 34; Jer. xlvi. 23; Nah. iii. 15, &c.; for although our translation has 'grasshopper' in some of these passages, the locust is no doubt the creature intended by the original.

But the most particular description of the locust in the sacred writings, is that in Joel ii. 3—10. A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, nothing shall escape them, &c.

This is, perhaps, one of the most striking and animated pictures to be found in the whole compass of prophecy. The contexture of the passage is extremely curious; and the double destruction to be produced by locusts, and the enemies of which they were the harbingers, is painted with the most expressive force, and described with the most terrible accuracy. We may fancy the destroying army moving before us while we read, and the desolation spreading while we turn over the pages.

Many writers mention the resemblance which the head of the locust bears to that of the horse; whence the Italians call them cavalette. But the prophet does not appear to be describing the shape of the insect, when he compares it to a horse, but rather its properties, its fierceness, and its swift motion. Thus, in Rev. ix. 7, the locusts are compared to horses prepared for the battle; furious and impatient for the war.

The noise of their coming shall be heard at a distance, like the sound of chariots passing over the mountains. When they fall on the ground and leap from place to place, and devour the fruits, the sound of them will resemble the crackling of the stubble when consuming by the flames; or the din and clamor of an army ready prepared to engage in battle.

How this description agrees to the locusts, is shown abundantly by Bochart, who tells us, from several authors, that they fly with a great noise; as John has also described them, 'The sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots, of many horses running to battle,' (Rev. ix. 9.); that they may be heard at six miles distance; and that when they are eating the fruits of the earth, the sound is like that of a flame driven by the wind.

The prophet adds

Before them the earth quaketh, the heavens tremble;
The sun and the moon are darkened,

And the stars withdraw their shining.

Dr. Shaw, by whose excellent zoological remarks so many passages in the sacred writings have been elucidated, has shown, from the testimony of his own observation, that these poetical expressions are scarcely hyperbolical with respect to this formidable insect. And Pliny, the Roman naturalist, gives a description of its migratory swarms almost equally sublime with that of the eastern poet. "This plague,' says he, is considered as a manifestation of the wrath of the gods. For they appear of an unusual size; and fly with such a noise, from the motion of their wings, that they might be taken for birds. They darken the sun. And the nations view them in anxious suspense; each apprehensive lest their own lands should be overspread by them. For their strength is unfailing; and, as if it were a small thing to have crossed oceans, they pervade immense tracts of land, and cover the harvests with a dreadful cloud; their very touch destroying many of the fruits of the earth, but their bite utterly consuming all its products, and even the houses.'

The account which Volney gives of these insects, and of their devastations, is a wonderful illustration of this passage of the prophet. Syria, as well as Egypt, Persia, and almost all the South of Asia, is subject to a calamity no less dreadful than that of the volcanoes and earthquakes I have mentioned: I mean those clouds of locusts so often mentioned by travellers. The quantity of these insects is incredible to all who have not themselves witnessed their astonishing numbers: the whole earth is covered with them, for the