before the ovipositor is thrust under the skin of the victim and the egg is laid. The Aphis appears to suffer at first but little, since it soon resumes its occupation of pumping up the sap. A worm-like, or more commonly, a maggot-like creature, according to the species of the parasite, hatches from this egg, which revels in the organised nutritious fluid elaborated by the Aphis. The greater part of the abdomen is occupied by this maggot when it becomes full fed, and then it may often be seen through the transparent integument, as a grub curled into a semicircle. Finally, the Aphis dies, the grub ceases to feed, and after a certain period of rest cuts out of the roof of its prison a circular plate, like a trap-door, as regular in form as if a carpenter’s centre-bit had been used. The emerging fly has four wings, long antennæ composed of numerous joints, a wasp-like body and legs, and is in every way suited for its marauding expeditions.”[43] Other and more interesting dramas can take place within the body of an Aphis; wheels within wheels, one masterpiece of economic contrivance enclosing another, perfection more perfected. Along what path, indeed, can the beauty and wisdom of Nature—those endless steps from endless seeming halting-places that become, when reached, but so many points of fresh departure—be run to earth, so to speak? The brain becomes, at last, almost weary in the pursuit of wisdom’s ways, and even the delighted spirit would fain cry, “Hold! Enough!” Thoughts like these are powerfully excited by the following picture.