300 POPULAR SCRIPTURE ZOOLOGY.

mosquitos; and the arguments in favour of this opinion
_are very plausible. The swelling and subsiding of the river
Nile would probably cause a vast increase of these insects,
as the damp would be particularly favourable to them; and
the words “swarms” is also very applicable, as any one
will agree who has seen a “swarm of gnats at eventide ;”
but the opinion of Mr. Kirby and other eminent writers is
in favour of the Blatta Aigyptiaca, or Egyptian cockroach.
The reader will find the arguments in favour of this idea
under the article Breruz.

In Matthew xxiii. the gnat is spoken of in the following
manner, when Jesus is admonishing the people not to follow
the evil example of the Scribes and Pharisees :—‘ Woe
unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay
tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the
weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith :
these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the others
undone; ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat and swal-
low a camel.” At first this expression may seem only to
imply difference and contrast in size, in order to show, in
the figurative lariguage of the East, that the false teachers
whom our Saviour had denounced, would not hesitate to
commit great sins (typified by swallowing a camel), though