158 INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



ledge of the time, be it long or skort, which will elapse 

 before the last change of the pupa takes place. That the 

 caterpillar, while weaving its cocoon and preparing to 

 assume the pupa state, exercises any reflective faculties, 

 or is aware of what is about to occur relative to its own 

 self, we cannot admit. It enters upon a work of which 

 it has had no previous experience, and which is per- 

 formed, as far as contingencies allow, in the same manner 

 by every caterpillar of the same species. Its labours, its 

 mode of carrying them on, and the very time in which 

 they are to be commenced, are all pre-appointed ; and an 

 instinctive impulse urges and guides; and with this 

 instinct its organic endowments are in precise harmony ; 

 nor does instinct ever impel to labours for which an 

 animal is not provided. "The same wisdom," saj^s 

 Bonnet, " which has constructed and arranged with so 

 much art the various organs of animals, and has made 

 them concur towards one determined end, has also pro- 

 vided that the different operations which are the natural 

 results of the economy of the animal should concur to- 

 wards the same end. The creature is directed towards 

 his object by an invisible hand ; he executes with pre- 

 cision, and by one effort, those works which we so much 

 admire ; he appears to act as if he reasoned, to return to 

 his labour at the proper time, to change his scheme in 

 case of need. But in all this he only obeys the secret 

 influence which drives him on. He is but an instrument 

 which cannot judge of each action, but is wound up by 

 that adorable Intelligence, which has traced out for every 

 insect its proper labours, as he. has traced the orbit of 

 each planet. When, therefore, I see an insect working 

 at the construction of a nest, or a cocoon, I am impressed 

 with respect, because it seems to me that I am at a 

 spectacle where the Supreme Artist is hid behind the 

 curtain."* 



There is a small sort of caterpillar which may be found 

 on old walls, feeding upon minute mosses and lichens, 



* Contemplation de la Xutui-e, part xv. chap. 38. 



