272^ STUDIES OF NATURE. 



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

 Climate alone, near fix thoufand fpecies, moft of 

 them as diftind from each other, as to forms and 

 inftinfls, as bees themfelves are from other flies. 



If we were to compare the relations of this vo- 

 latile clafs, fo numerous in itfelf, with all the parts 

 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. All 

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

 to the various induftry of the other infects which 

 crawl, which leap, which fvvim, which climb, 

 which walk, which are motionlefs ; the number 

 of thefe is incomparably greater than that of the 

 firft : and the hiftory of thefe lafl, added to that of 

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

 one puny race of this great Republic of the 

 World, replenilhed as it is with innumerable fhoals 

 of fifhes, and endlefs legions of quadrupeds, am- 

 phibious animals, and birds. 



All their clafTes, 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 



