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Avhen they begin to fpin their webs, are not larger than a full grown 

 one, and that each of thefe minute Spiders polTefT'es the fame organs 

 as the larger ones, it follows, that the exceeding fmall threads fpun 

 by thefe little creatures, muft be ftill four hundred times flenderer, 

 and confequently that four millions of thefe minute Spiders' threads 

 cannot equal in fubftance the fizeof a fingle hair. And if we farther 

 confider of how many filaments or parts each of thefe threads confifts, 

 to compofe the fize we have been computing, we are compelled to 

 cry out, O what incredible minutenefs is here ! and how little do we 

 know of the works of Nature ! 



I never could procure a fight of thefe animals when coupling to- 

 gether, either in the gardens or fields, nor when inclofed in glades, 

 for I always perceived the female to run away at the approach of the 

 male, and having at one time inclofed three male Spiders with a 

 fem.ale in one glafs, the female flew at the males with fo much fury, 

 and wounded them to fuch a degree, that blood iffued from their 

 legs and feet. Hereupon I killed the female, and the next day I faw 

 two of the males lie dead, and the furvivor employed in devouring 

 the dead female. 



Thefe are the chief of my obfervations on the Spider, an animal 

 held in fuch deteftation by many, that they dread even the fight or 

 approach of it, but in which we find as much perfciiion and beauty 

 as in any other animal. 



cal bodies, which according to the rules of arithmetic, are in the fame proportion to 

 each other as the cubts of their refpeiltive diameters. Thus, if a young Spider's body is a 

 feventh part of the diameter of a full grown one, the latter will be 343 times the bulk of the 

 former, if an eighth part, 5 1 z times. The proportion here afligneJ by the author, is nearly 

 the medium between thefe two. 



