INSECTS. 
X HE class of beings distinguished by the title of 
Insects, though far inferior in point of magni- 
tude, must be confessed to surpass in variety of 
structure and singularity of appearance all the 
larger branches of the animal world. Their ex- 
traordinary shapes, the surprising beauty and di- 
versity of their colours, and above all, the astonish- 
ing alteration of form which the generality of 
them undergo, conspire to constitute one of the 
most curious speculations which the science of 
natural history can exhibit, and may be said to 
realize all the fancied transformations recorded in 
the fictions of poetical romance. 
The general characters by which Insects are 
distinguished from other animals are these. First, 
they are furnished with several feet : secondly, the 
muscles are affixed to the internal surface of the 
skin, which is of a substance more or less strona\ 
and sometimes very hard and horny: thirdly, they 
breathe not in the usual manner of the generality 
of larger animals, by lungs or gills, situated in the 
upper part of the body, but by a sort of spiracles 
V. VI. P. I. 1 
