bably tents made of camel-skin, such as the Arabs still make, and the
colour of these is not black but brown. Whether Solomon wrote the
so-called song or not we do not know; but the poet refers to a legend that
it was written in praise of the beauty of the dark queen who came from
Sheba to visit the wisest man of the world. Such is not, however, the
opinion of modern scholars. The composition is really dramatic, although
thrown into lyrical form, and as arranged by Renan and others it becomes a
beautiful little play, of which each act is a monologue. "Sensuous" the
poet correctly calls it; for it is a form of praise of woman's beauty in
all its details, as appears in such famous verses as these: "How beautiful
are thy feet in shoes, O prince's daughter; the joints of thy thighs are
like jewels, the work of the hands of a cunning workman. Thy two breasts
are like two young roes that are twins which feed among the lilies." But
Christianity, instead of dismissing this part of the Bible, interpreted
the song mystically--insisting that the woman described meant the Church,
and the lover, Christ. Of course only very pious people continue to
believe this; even the good Whittier preferred the legend that it was
written about the Queen of Sheba.

I suppose that I ought to end this lecture upon insect poetry by some
quotation to which a moral or philosophical meaning can be attached. I
shall end it therefore with a quotation from the poet Gray. The poetry of
insects may be said to have first appeared in English literature during
the second half of the eighteenth century, so that it is only, at the
most, one hundred and fifty years old. But the first really fine poem of
the eighteenth century relating to the subject is quite as good as
anything since composed by Englishmen upon insect life in general. Perhaps
Gray referred especially to what we call May-flies--those delicate ghostly
insects which hover above water surfaces in fine weather, but which die on
the same day that they are born. He does not specify May-flies, however,
and we may consider the moral of the poem quite apart from any particular
kind of insect. You will find this reference in the piece entitled "Ode on
the Spring," in the third, fourth, and fifth stanzas.

Still is the toiling hand of care:
The panting herds repose:
Yet hark, how through the peopled air
The busy murmur glows!
The insect youth are on the wing,
Eager to taste the honied spring,