OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 55 



posed to the attack of so many enemies, or subject to so 

 many disasters; so that the few individuals of each kind 

 which enrich the vakied museum of the entomologist, 

 many of which are dearer to him than gold or gems, are 

 snatched from the ravenous maw of some bird or fish or 

 rapacious insect; would have been driven by the winds 

 into the waters and drowned ; or trodden underfoot by 

 man or beast, — for it is not easy, in some parts of the 

 year, to set foot to the ground without crushing these 

 minute animals; and thus also, instead of being buried 

 in oblivion, they have a kind of immortality conferred 

 upon them. Can it be believed that the beneficent Cre- 

 ator, whose tender mercies are over all his works, would 

 expose these helpless beings to such innumerable ene- 

 mies and injuries, were they endued with the same sense 

 of pain and irritability of nerve with the higher orders 

 of animals ? 



But this inference is reduced to certainty, when we 

 attend to the facts which insects every day present to us, 

 proving that the very converse of our great poet's con- 

 clusion, as usually interpreted, 



The poor beetle that we tread upon, 



In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great 

 As when a giant dies, 



must be regarded as nearer the truth*. Not to mention 

 the peculiar organization of insects, which strongly fa- 

 vours the idea I am inculcating, but which will be con- 



* Shakcspear's intention however in this passage was evidently 

 not, as is often supposed, to excite compassion for the insect, but 

 to prove that 



The sense of Death is most in apprehension, 



the actual pang being trifling. Measure/or Measure, Actiii. Scene 1. 



