INTRODUCTORY LETTER. 15 



had their houses divided into various apartments, and 

 containing staircases, gigantic arches, domes, colon- 

 nades, and the like ; nay, that even tunnels are exca- 

 vated by them so immense, compared with their own size, 

 as to be twelve times bigger than that projected by Mr. 

 Dodd to be carried under the Thames at Gravesend*. 

 The modern fine lady, who prides herself on the lustre 

 and beauty of the scarlet hangings which adorn the state- 

 ly walls of her drawing-room, or the carpets that cover 

 its floor, fancying that nothing so rich and splendid was 

 ever seen before, and pitying her vulgar ancestors, who 

 were doomed to unsightly white-wash and rushes, is ig- 

 norant all the while, that before she or her ancestors 

 were in existence, and even before the boasted Tyrian 

 dye was discovered, a little insect had known how to 

 hang the walls of its cell with tapestry of a scarlet more 

 brilliant than any her rooms can exhibit^, and that 

 others daily weave silken carpets, both in tissue and 

 texture infinitely superior to those she so much admires. 

 No female ornament is more prized and costly than lace, 

 the invention and fabrication of which seems the exclu- 

 sive claim of the softer sex. But even here they have 

 been anticipated by these little industrious creatures, 

 who often defend their helpless chrysalis, by a most sin- 

 gular covering, and as beautiful as singular, of lace*^. 

 Other arts have been equally forestalled by these crea- 

 tures. What vast importance is attached to the inven- 

 tion of paper ! For near six thousand years one of our 



* The wliite ants, ^ Megachile Papaveris. 



•^ The late ingenious Mr. Paul, of Harleston in Norfolk, under the 

 bark of a tree discovered a considerable portion of a fabric of this 

 kind, which from its amplitude must have been destined for some 

 other purpose. 



