272. STUDIES OF NATURE. 



the clafs of flies, of which we know, in our own 

 Climate alone, near fix thoufand fpecies, moft of 

 them as diftinft from each other, as to forms and 

 inftinds, as bees themfelves are from other flies. 



If we were to compare the relations of this vo- 

 latile clafs, fo numerous in itfelf, with ail the parrs 

 of the vegetable and animal kingdoms, we fliould 

 find an innumerable multitude of different orders 

 of conformity ; and were we to add to them, thofe 

 which are prefented to us in the legions of butter- 

 flies, fcarabs, locufts, and other infedts which like- 

 wife fly, we fliould multiply them to infinity. AU 

 this, ftill, would be but a fmall matter, compared 

 to the various induftry of the other infeds which 

 crawl, which leap, which fvvim, which climb, 

 which walk, which are motionlefs ; the number 

 of thefe is incomparably greater than that of the 

 firfl: : and the hiftory of thefe laft, added to that of 

 the others, would, after all, be the hiftory of only- 

 one puny race of this great Republic of the 

 World, replenilfied as it is with innumerable flioals 

 of fiflies, and endlefs legions of quadrupeds, am- 

 phibious animals, and birds. 



All their clafles, with their divifions, and fub- 

 divifions, the minuteft individual of which prefents 

 a very extenfive fphere of conformities, are them- 

 felves only particular conformities ; only rays and 



points 



