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, liave 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 those 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 



