4<8 huect Avchitecture* 



With regard to the study of insects in particular, it may, 

 perhaps, at first sight appear somewhat extraordinary, that 

 while botany has long had its troops of ardent admirers, 

 entomology has, till comparatively of late years, lain under 

 peculiar reproach and neglect. This, no doubt, is in part 

 owing to the too prevailing error of uniformly associating 

 with the very name of " insect " the idea of something noxious, 

 destructive, and disgusting. Not only the vulgar, but many 

 even of the better-informed, are in the habit of regarding 

 these wonderful little creatures in the light of blights, pests, 

 scourges of the human race, and in no other. They overlook 

 entirely the important purposes which the inferior animals 

 are ordained to accomplish in the economy of nature ; and for- 

 get that 



" Each crawling insect holds a rank 



Important in the plan of Him who framed 

 This scale of beings ; holds a rank which lost 

 Would break the chain, and leave behind a gap 

 Which Nature's self would rue." Stillingfleet. 



" We ought not," says Aristotle, " childishly to disdain the 



regards the phenomena of nature with a constant reference to a supreme 

 intelligent Author. To have made this the ruling, the habitual sentiment 

 of our minds, is to have laid the foundation of every thing which is reli- 

 gious. The world thenceforth becomes a temple, and life itself one con- 

 tinued act of adoration. The change is no less than this : that, whereas 

 formerly God was seldom in our thoughts, we can now scarcely look upon 

 any thing without perceiving its relation to him. Every organised natural 

 body, in the provisions it contains for ;ts sustentation and propagation, 

 testifies a care, ori the part of the Creator, expressly directed to these 

 piirjiyi^fegr'J W^ afi^'on dr'^Wes'but^nimhdted'by ih(^h' b6'difes j ^xdn^iriefd in 

 tljeirJMucta, ^ottclei^|ly;Ciirio«isf^ti(Miiipat0d'witte<i«ie> another, fto«)egfe^vldW- 

 derfully diversified. So that the mind, as well as the eye, may either 

 ex|)atiate in variety and multitude, or fix itself down to the investigation 

 of pdHr^a¥' diVfstofj^ (^f the science. '^'Afid in either casfe it witl nse up 

 from its occupation [:)ossessed by th^ subject in a very different manner, 

 and with a'very different degree of mfl'uence, from what kmiere as'sent to 

 any Vei*bq,l proposifion which can be formed concerning the existence of the 

 Ddty, at ieist that merely complying assent with whfchthoSe about us are 

 g^tisn^'d, aind' With which we are too apt to satisfy oui'selves, will or ' can 

 pi^ddu^e upon the thoughts. More especially may this difference be, per- 

 ceived in the degree of admiration and of awe'vvith which the Divinity Js 

 regardfddVWhen represehted tb the understanding by its own remarks, its 

 o\V'n reflections, and its own reasonings, compared with what is excited by 

 ahy language that can be used fc|y others. The works of nature want only 

 to be contetnplated."^c. See Pale^'k l^atural Theology, p. 585., a work 

 which We cannot too strongly i-e'cominend to the perusal of our readers 

 generall^i not merely afe affording a' vfery high degree of amusement and 

 instructibh, but also mote particulariy as cfirecting them to the proper ap- 

 plication of their' studies in the field of nature. It will appear that, in 

 what we have offered in the present article, we have very much underrated 

 the advantages, the utility of natural history. 



