METAPHORICALLY speaking, the Beetl been on back for many a lon year. Let me try to set it on its legs. Perhaps no insects have been less understoo than the beetles. Even Shakspeare, though h could find a compassionate word for the " poor Beetl that we tread upon," could not find a kindly or appre ciative word for it. On the contrary, he shared the popular belief that beetles are noxious, hateful, and objectionable beings, and baneful to mankind. In th Tempest, where Caliban reviles Prospero, he invokes "All the charms Of Sycorax, toads, Beetles, light on you." In the Midsummer Night's Dream where Titania sleeps, her attendan fairies sing "Beetles black, approach not near." I very much fear that the popula prejudice has not undergone ver The Sunday magazine Thomas Guthrie, William Garden Blaikie, Benjamin Waugh |