s moral enthusiasm. In the end, therefore, I always gave the
evil-doers the benefit of the doubt; and I only mention my ethical
scruples in the matter here lest scoffers should say, when they come to
read what manner of things Lucy and Eliza did: 'Oh yes, that's just
like those scientific folks; they're always so cold-blooded. He could
stand by and see these poor helpless flies tortured slowly to death,
without a chance for their lives, and never put out a helping hand to
save them!' Well, I would only ask you one question, my sapient friend,
who talk like that: Has it ever occurred to you that, if you kill one
spider, you merely make room in the overflowing economy of nature for
another to pick up a dishonest livelihood? Have you ever reflected that
the prime blame of spiderhood rests with Nature herself (if we may
venture to personify that impersonal entity); and that she has provided
such a constant supply or relay of spiders as will amply suffice to
fill up all the possible vacancies that can ever occur in insect-eating
circles? Unless you have considered all these points carefully, and
have an answer to give about them, you are not in a position to
pronounce upon the subject, and you had better be referred for six
months longer, as the medical examiners gracefully put it, to your
ethical, psychological, and biological studies. The great point about
the position in which Eliza and Lucy had placed themselves was simply
this. They stood full against the light, so that we could see right
through their translucent bodies, which were almost liquid to look
upon, and beautifully dappled with dark spots on a grey ground in a
very pretty and effective pattern. So favourable was the opportunity
for observation, indeed, that we could clearly make out with the naked
eye even the joints of their legs, the hairs on their tarsi--excuse the
phrase--and the very shape of their cruel tigerlike claws, as they
rushed forth upon their prey in a sort of carnivorous frenzy. At all
hours of the day we could notice exactly what they were doing or
suffering; and so familiar did we become with them individually and
personally, that before the end of the season we recognized in detail
all the differences of their characters almost as one might do with
cats or dogs, and spoke of them by their Christian names like old and
well-known acquaintances.

As the webs which Lucy and Eliza spun were several times broken or
mutilated during the year, eith