LETTER IX. 



BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 



INDIRECT BENEFITS. 



JMY last letters contained, I must own, a most melan- 

 choly though not an overcharged picture of the injuries 

 and devastation which man, in various ways, experiences 

 through the instrumentality of the insect world. In this 

 and the following I hope to place before you a more 

 agreeable scene, since in them I shall endeavour to point 

 out in what respects these minute animals are made to 

 benefit us, and what advantages we i*eap from their ex- 

 tensive agency. 



God, in all the evil which he permits to take place, 

 whether spiritual, moral, or natural, has the ultimate good 

 of his creatures in view. The evil that we suffer is often 

 a countercheck which restrains us from greater evil, or a 

 spur to stimulate us to good : we should therefore con- 

 sider every thing, not according to the present sensations 

 of pain, or the present loss or injury that it occasions, but 

 according to its more general, remote, and permanent 

 effects and bearings; — whether by it we are not imjjelled 

 to the practice of many virtues which otherwise might 

 lie dormant in us — whether our moral habits are not im- 

 proved — whether we are not rendered by it more pru- 

 dent, cautious, and war}', more watchful to prevent evil, 

 more ingenious and skilful to remedy it — and whether 



