10 IXTHODUCTORY LETTER. 



respiratory systems should be so complex, their secretory and digestive 

 vessels so various and singular, their parts of generation so clearly developed, 

 and that these minims of nature should be endowed with instincts in many 

 cases superior to all our boasted powers of intellect — truly these wonders 

 and miracles declare to every one who attends to the subject, " The hand 

 that made vs is divine.'^ We are the work of a Being infinite in power, in 

 wisdom, and in goodness. 



But no religious doctrine is more strongly established by the history of 

 insects than that of a superintending Providence. That of the innumera- 

 ble species of these beings, many of them beyond conception fragile and 

 exposed to dangers and enemies without end, no link should be lost from 

 the chain, but all be maintained in those relative proportions necessary for 

 the general good of the system ; that if one species for a while preponderate, 

 and instead of preserving seem to destroy, yet counter-checks should at the 

 same time be provided to reduce it within its due limits ; and further, that 

 the operations of insects should be so directed and overruled as to effect 

 the purposes for wiiich they were created, and never exceed their com- 

 mission : nothing can furnish a stronger proof than this, that an unseen 

 hand holds the reins, now permitting one to prevail, and now another, as 

 shall best promote certain wise ends ; and saying to each, " Hitherto shall 

 thou come and no further .'' 



So complex is this mundane s)'stem, and so incessant the conflict between 

 its component parts, an observation which holds good particularly with 

 regard to insects, that if, instead of being under such control, it were left 

 to the agency of blind chance, the whole must inevitably soon be deranged 

 and go to ruin. Insects, in truth, are a book in which whoever reads under 

 proper impressions cannot avoid looking from the effect to the Cause, and 

 acknowledging his eternal power and godhead thus wonderfully displayed 

 and irrefragahly demonstrated : and whoever beholds these works with the 

 eyes of the body must be blind indeed if he cannot, and perverse indeed if 

 he will not, with the eye of the soul, behold in all his glory the Almighty 

 Workman, and feel disposed, with every power of his nature, to praise and 

 magnify 



Him first, Him last, Him midst. Him without end. 



And now having led you to the vestibule of an august temple, which in 

 its inmost sanctuary exhibits enshrined in glory the symbols of the Divine 

 Presence, I should invite you to enter and give a tongue to the Hallelujahs, 

 which every creature in its place, by working his will with all its faculties, 

 pours forth to his great Creator : but I must first endeavour to remove, as 

 I trust I shall effectually, those objections to the study of these interesting 

 beings which I alluded to in the outset of this letter, and this shall be the 

 aim of my next address. 



I aoi; &c. 



