LETTER IX. 



BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 



INDIRECT BENEFITS. 



31 Y last letters contained, I must own, a most melan- 

 choly though not an overcharged picture of the injuries 

 and devastation which man, in various ways, expe- 

 riences through the instrumentality of the insect world. 

 In this and the following I hope to place before you a 

 more agreeable scene, since in them I shall endeavour 

 to point out in what respects these minute animals are 

 made to benefit us, and what advantages we reap from 

 their extensive agency. 



God, in all tSie evil which he permits to take place, 

 whether spiritual, moral, or natural, has the ultimate 

 good of his creatures in view. The evil that we suffer 

 is often a countercheck which restrains us from greater 

 evil, or a spur to stimulate us to good : we should 

 therefore consider every thing, not according to the 

 present sensations of pain, or the present loss or injury 

 that it occasions, but according to its more general, re- 

 mote, and permanent eifects and bearings ; — whether 

 by it we are not impelled to the practice of many 

 virtues which otherwise might lie dormant in us — 

 whether our moral habits are not improved — Avhether 

 we are not rendered by it more prudent, cautious, and 

 wary, more watchful to prevent evil, more ingenious 



