It is no mercy to
pardon and let loose upon the community one who, having already been
convicted of manifold delinquencies, only waits a convenient season for
adding to the catalogue of his crimes; and what is larceny, or felony,
or even treason, compared with the perpetration of the outrages above
attempted to be described?--We pause for a reply.
Summer is a most delectable--a most glorious season. We, who are fond of
basking as a lizard, and whose inward spirit dances and exults like a
very mote in the sun-beam, always hail its approach with rapture; but
our anticipations of bright and serene days--of blue, cloudless, and
transparent skies--of shadows the deeper from intensity of surrounding
light--of yellow corn-fields, listless rambles, and lassitude rejoicing
in green and sunny banks--are allayed by this one consideration, that
Waked by the summer ray, the reptile young
Come winged abroad. From every chink
And secret corner, where they slept away
The wintry storms; by myriads forth at once,
Swarming they pour.
Go where you will, it is not possible to escape these "winged reptiles."
They abound exceedingly in all sunny spots; nor in the shady lane do
they not haunt every bush, and lie perdu under every leaf, thence
sallying forth on the luckless wight who presumes to molest their
"solitary reign;" they hang with deliberate importunity over the path of
the sauntering pedestrian, and fly with the flying horseman, like the
black cares (that is to say, blue devils) described by the Roman lyrist.
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