INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 233 



perceive have an intimate bearing upon it; and I shall 

 therefore proceed to point out the nnore evident bene- 

 fits which v/e derive from insects, arranging them un- 

 der the two great heads of direct benefits, and those 

 which are indirect; beginning with the latter. 



The insects which are indirectli/ beneficial to us, may 

 be considered under three points of view : First, as re- 

 moving various nuisances and deformities from the face 

 of nature: Secondly, as destroying other insects, that 

 but for their agency would multiply so as greatly to in- 

 jure and annoy us : and Thirdly, as supplying food to 

 useful animals, particularly to fish and birds. 



To advert in ihejirst place to the former. All sub- 

 stances must be regarded as nuisances and deformities, 

 when considered with relation to the whole, which are 

 deprived of the principle of animation. In this rela- 

 tion stand a dead carcase, a dead tree, or a mass of ex- 

 crement, which are clearly incumbrances that it is de- 

 sirable to have removed ; and the office of effecting this 

 removal is chiefly assigned to insects, which have been 

 justly called the great scavengers of nature. Let us 

 consider their little but effective operations in each of 

 their vocations. 



How disgusting to the eye, how offensive tathe smell, 

 would be the whole face of nature, were the vast quan- 

 tity of excrement daily falling to the earth from the va- 

 rious animals which inhabit it, suffered to remain until 

 gradually dissolved by the rain or decomposed by the 

 elements ! That it does not thus offend us, we are in- 

 debted to an inconceivable host of insects which attack 

 it the moment it falls; some immediately beginning to 



