But I know this, my work is slowly but surely killing me.

And I know it because I have a soul--at least a mind made otherwise than yours." The use of the word "soul" in the last stanza of this poem, brings me back to the question put forth in an earlier part of the lecture--why European poets, during the last two thousand years, have written so little upon the subject of insects?
Three thousand, four thousand years ago, the most beautiful Greek poetry--poetry more perfect than anything of English poetry--was written upon insects.

In old Japanese literature poems upon insects are to be found by thousands.

What is the signification of the great modern silence in Western countries upon this delightful topic?
I believe that Christianity, as dogma, accounts for the long silence.

The opinions of the early Church refused soul, ghost, intelligence of any sort to other creatures than man.