INSECTS OUR PIONEERS IN THE ARTS. 



Shame upon the man who turns with contempt from any thing God 

 has seen fit to create and esteems worthy of his continual protection ? 

 The least of God's creatures displays the unapproachable excellencies 

 of his character, oftentimes more strikingly than the greatest. The at- 

 tentive observer finds himself richly repaid by stooping to examine the 

 smallest insect ; and the word of God even urges him to make their 

 habits a subject of study, Much may be learned from them. Not mere- 

 ly habits of industry, which we suppose was mainly intended by the sa- 

 cred penman when he wrote "Go to the ant, thou sluggard, consider her 

 ways and he wise ;" but also many things that could be profitably em- 

 ployed in the arts, and many contrivances to add to our comfort. One 

 thing is certain, viz. that these little creatures have anticipated us in many 

 of our most highly prized inventions. Ought they to be called inven- 

 tions? Are they not merely discoveries of what had long before been 

 known by our teachers in miniature ? 



In the first volume of Kirby and Spence's Entomology, (a work 

 which every man should read before he ventures to express the merest 

 opinion on the subject of entomology,) some of the anticipated inven- 

 tions are summed up in the following language : (p. 14, v. I.) 



"The lord of creation plumes himself upon his powers of invention, 

 and is proud to enumerate the many various useful arts and machines to 

 which they have given birth, not aware that "He who teachelh man 

 knowledge," has instructed these despised insects to anticipate him in 

 many of them. The builders of Babel doubtless thought their inven- 

 tion of turning earth into artificial stone, a very happy discovery; yet a 

 little bee had practised this art, using indeed a different process, on a 

 small scale, and the white ants on a large scale, ever since the world be- 

 gan. Man thinks that he stands unrivalled as an architect, and that his 

 buildings are without a parallel among the works of the inferior order 

 of animals. He would be of a different opinion did he attend to the 

 history of insects : he would find that many of them have been archi- 

 tects from time immemorial ; that they have had their houses divided in- 

 to various apartments, and containing staircases, gigantic arches, domes, 

 colonnades, and the like ; nay, that even tunnels are excavated 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 al 

 Gravesend. 



The modern fine lady, who prides herself on the lustre and beauty 

 of the scarlet hangings which adorn the stately walls of her drawing- 

 room, or the carpets that cover its floor, fancying that nothing so rich 



