120 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



unguents, or be suffocated by fumiga.tions, or be con- 

 tent to be bound, head, hand and foot, shut out from 

 the respiration of the common air, and even thus 

 scarcely escape from their annoyance ; you uill feel 

 convinced that the former is the more tolerable evil of 

 the two, and be inclined to think that those cities, from 

 wliich'the lions were driven away by the more powerful 

 gnats, were no great gainers by the exchange''. With 

 what grateful hearts ought the privileged inhabitants 

 of these happy islands to acknowledge and glorify the 

 goodness of tliat kind Providence which has distin- 

 guished us from the less favoured nations of the globe, 

 by what may be deemed an immunity from this toi> 

 menting pest ! for the inroads which they make on our 

 comfort, when contrasted with what so many other 

 people of every climate suffer from them, are mere no- 

 things. When we behold on one side of us the ravages 

 of the wide-wasting sword, on another those of in- 

 fectious disease or pestilence, on a third famine de- 

 stroying its myriads, and on a fourth life rendered un- 

 comfortable by the terror of " noisome beasts" and the 

 attack of noxious insects : and when we look at home 

 and see every one eating his bread in peace, protected 

 in his enjoyments by equal laws, executed by a mild 

 government, under a paternal king, Avithout fearing 

 the sword of the oppressor ; not scourged by pestilence 

 or famine, exposed to the attack of no ferocious ani- 

 mal, and comparatively speaking but slightly visited 

 by the annoyance of insect tormentors : and especially 

 v/hen we further reflect that it is his mercy and not 

 our merits which has induced him thus to overwhelm 



■^ IMouftet, 85, 



