IJIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 101 



censure which has been inconsiderately cast upon it. 

 Because they did not know every thin^^j or so much as 

 we do, we are too apt to think that they knew nothing. 

 That they fell into very considerable errors, especially 

 in subjects connected with Natural History, cannot be 

 denied; but then it ought to be considered that they 

 possessed scarcely any of those advantages by which 

 we are enabled to penetrate into nature's secrets. The 

 want of the microscope alone Mas an effectual bar to 

 their progress in this branch of science. Yet, in some 

 instances, when they took a general view of a subject, 

 they appear to have had very correct ideas. This ob- 

 servation particularly applies to the philosopher of 

 Stagyra, whose mighty mind and lyncean eye, in spite 

 of those mists of prejudice and fable that enveloped 

 the age in which he lived, enabled him in part to pierce 

 through the gloom, and comprehend and behold the 

 fair outline that gives symmetry, grace and beauty to 

 the whole of nature's form, though he mistook, or was 

 not able to trace out, her less prominent features and 

 minor lineaments. 



It is now time to return from this long digression, 

 which however is closely connected with the subject of 

 this letter, to the point from v/hich I deviated. Taking 

 my leave of the disgusting animals which gave rise to 

 it, I proceed to call your attention to another of our 

 pygmy tormentors, which, in the opinion of some, seems 

 to have been resfarded as an agreeable rather than a 

 repulsive object. " Dear Miss," said a lively old Lady 

 to a friend of mine, (who had the misfortune to be con- 

 fined to lier bed by a broken limb, and was complaia- 



