DEVIATIONS FROM USUAL COURSE OF NATURE. 173 
by an infinity of ways, to one end. If, to effect 
some purpose unknown to us, this nice adjustment 
(but in a single instance) is for a time suspended, 
we see disorder, devastation, and ruin inevitably 
follow. Such instances are not rare, for they are 
continually brought before us; and they may be 
looked upon as examples of what would follow, if 
there was no supreme Superintendence over cre- 
ation. No insect is better known that the cock- 
chafer, so common during summer. It feeds upon 
foliage; yet, in ordinary years, its numbers being 
regulated and kept within due limits, it is in no 
way injurious. Instances, however, have occurred, 
where these restrictions upon its increase appear to 
have been suspended, and the consequences were 
fearful. In the year 1688, immense hosts of this 
beetle suddenly appeared in Ireland: all vegetation 
was covered and destroyed by them; so that, but 
for their timely removal, famine would have fallen 
upon the land, and a pestilence have arisen from 
their dead bodies. We cannot doubt but that this 
and similar instances form part of the economy of 
nature, and are connected with causes and effects 
far beyond our penetration; but we must still 
consider them as deviations from the ordinary 
course of things, and from thoge rules by which 
we are accustomed to judge of the harmonious 
regulation of the universe. 
(117.) Our first object, however, after becoming 
acquainted with the form of an animal, is to as- 
certain its habits and economy; without which it 
will be impossible to speculate upon its uses, or to 
understand in what way it promotes the harmony 
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