156 FIRST USES OF INSECTS. 



even now a creature of imagination : Huber, their celebrated 

 historian, having received a present of some such from Mexico. 

 Constituted thus of harmless nature, we may suppose the 

 earliest use of Insects, like that of birds and other creatures, to 

 have chiefly consisted in the forming, each according to its 

 measure and degree, various fitting receptacles of that life and 

 happiness, which it was then (as now) the great purpose and 

 pleasure of their Creator to bestow. Filling their assigned 

 place in the book of Nature, they were also, no doubt, made to 

 perform an essential part in the divine instruction of our first 

 parents. 



Spite, therefore, of our Jesuit's flea-bitten theology, we may 

 fairly infer, that amongst the creeping and flying things of 

 first creation, Insects were included, and that the " vernal airs ' 

 of Eden were no " desert airs," for lack of a glittering mul- 

 titude of ever joyous sporters in the sun and shade. Even for 

 uses economic, who can say but that in addition to 



" Fruits of all kinds, in coats 



Rough or smooth rind, or bearded husk or shell," 



and "juice of grape," and "dulcet cream of almonds," the 

 grassy breakfast -board of Eve might not have been furnished 

 with honey purer than was ever collected in Narbonne or 

 on Hymettus. Indeed, if honey was ever stored at all by the 

 Bees of Paradise, it must have been rather for the use of man 

 than for their own, since to amass a winter's provision, would 

 have been labour lost in a clime where reigned "eternal 



