323 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



fources of life, afford no leifure to reiled that they 

 are going to lofe it. That fatal moment is not em- 

 bittered to them, by any of the feelings which ren- 

 der it fo painful to moft of the Human Race, re- 

 gret for the pad:, and folicitude about futurity. 

 Their unanxious fpirits vanifli into the Ihades of 

 night, in the midft of a life of innocence, and fre- 

 quently during the indulgence of the fond illufions 

 of love. 



Unknown compenfations may, perhaps, farther 

 fweeten this laft tranfition. I (hall obferve at leaft, 

 as a circumftance deferving the moft attentive con- 

 fideration, that the animal fpecies, whofe life is fa- 

 crificed to the fupport of that of others, fuch as 

 that of infeds, do not appear poffeffed of any fen- 

 fibility. If the leg of a fly happens to be torn 

 away, ihe goes and comes as if (he had loft nothing ; 

 the cutting off a limb fo ccnfiderable is followed by 

 no fainting, or convulfion, or fcream, or fymptom 

 of pain whatever. Cruel children amufe themfelves 

 with thrufting ftraws into their anus ; they rife 

 into the air thus empaled ; they walk about, and 

 perform all their ufual motions, without feeming 

 to mind it. Others take lady-birds, tear off a 

 large limb, run a pin through the nerves and carti- 

 lages of the thigh, and attach them with a flip of 

 paper to a ftick. Thefe unfeeling infefts fly hum- 

 ming round and round the ftick, unweariedly, and 



without 



