He said, at last, that perhaps there might be some little
space beyond the pond in hot weather, when the water was low; and that
was the utmost that he would allow. But of all cold-blooded
unconvinceable creatures, the most obstinate are fish.
Men are very different. They do not refuse to believe what lies beyond
their personal experience. I respected the learned Doctor, and was
really sorry for the disadvantages under which he laboured. That a
creature of his intelligence should have only two eyes, and those not
even compound ones--that he should not be able to see under water or in
the dark--that he should not only have nothing like six legs, but be
quite without wings, so that he could not even fly out of his own window
for a turn in the air on a summer's evening--these drawbacks made me
quite sorry for him; for he had none of the minnow's complacent
ignorance. He knew my advantages as well as I knew them myself, and bore
me no ill-will for them.
"The _Dyticus marginalis_, or Great Water-Beetle," I have heard him say,
in the handsomest manner, "is equally at home in the air, or in the
water. Like all insects in the perfect state, it has six legs, of which
the hindmost pair are of great strength, and fringed so as to serve as
paddles.
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