1-829.] 



Domeslle and Foreign. 



683 



and asks, is it because tlie cotton sjiinners 

 are employed from an earlier ai,'e, and so are 

 necessarily a more ignorant class ? Tliis 

 query implies an opinion a little at variance 

 V'ith his account of the agricultural dis- 

 tricts, where he supposes the prevalence of 

 lunacy to originate in the "greater ease and 

 indolence of the people, with a half-culti- 

 vated state of mind." Is he not looking 

 for Ojiposite resvlts from the same or similar 

 causes'? Out of the whole 13 or 15,000, he 

 iinds 11,000 paupers, that is, apparently, the 

 uncultivated go mad more frequently than 

 the cultivated, which is again contrary to 

 common conclusions ; but, of course, gene- 

 ral facts must stand before partial guesses. 

 jMore ingredients, however, than mere want 

 of cultivation, will be requiied to make out 

 the rationale of all this — hard work and hard 

 living, and the division of labour wiiich con- 

 tines numbers too closely to the same objects, 

 and many more. But our Statistics are all, at 

 present, far too incomplete to allow of correct 

 generalization. We question much if there 

 are yet data sufficient to confirm the au- 

 thor's conclusion, that lunacy, for the last 

 twenty years, has increased faster than the 

 population. But Sir Andrew is a dihgent 

 man — is committed to the subject, and must 

 pursue it. 



Family Library, No. VII. History of 

 Insects, Vol. I. ; 1829 — So close and per- 

 severing an attention does the study of 

 insects demand, to get at any minute ac- 

 quaintance with their habits, that it would 

 be ilifficvdt to name the subject in which the 

 general inquirer is more indebted for infor- 

 «iation to particular individuals. So ab- 

 sorbing is the devotion it requires, that few 

 are ever likely to pursue the subject with 

 the necessary zeal ; and without zeal or even 

 enthusiasm, nothing can be done. The 

 generality of people must be, and are con- 

 tent on these matters with the accounts of 

 others ; and the more popular, that is, the 

 less mixed up with the paradings and fop- 

 peries of science, " falsely so called," the 

 more welcome such accounts are. Such is 

 the work before us; People, moreover, are 

 content with wondering at the marvels of 

 the insect creation, without even attempting 

 to satisfy themselves by ocular proof, except 

 by occasional glances, where specific facts 

 are pointed out. A few broad facts and 

 general results are all tliat are cared for. 

 The want of practical utility, besides, de- 

 ters ; and the sensation is not a pleasant 

 one, to read, for instance, of acari, till the 

 flesh creeps, and one feels being devoured. 



No wonder — such is the indefatigable 

 vigilance the subject requires — no wonder 

 the older naturalists, the first observers, 

 blundered cgregiously, mistaking animals 

 for fruits, or imagining j)lants were turned 

 into gall-flics ; or supposing insects, which 

 they saw emerging from extTCscnccs, with- 

 out visible inlet, were sucked up by the 

 roots with the juices, or generated by putre- 



faction. Closer inspection has dispersed 

 all such delusions ; and generation, among 

 them, is no longer to be believed " equi- 

 vocal," though it be still often obsciu'e 

 enough. 



Steady and unprogressive as animals ge- 

 nerally, and insects in particular, seem, the 

 instances are endless, where all of tliem are 

 found to vary their conduct according to 

 circumstances. These, in the case of insects, 

 the writer dihgently brings forward to make 

 them bear against the doctrine of Mate- 

 rialism — " Their very mistakes and irregu- 

 larities cause us," he observes, " to doubt 

 the doctrine that all their actions are the 

 result of organization." To us all this 

 appears a superfluous anxiety ; for the mar- 

 vels of organization are not made a whit the 

 less marvellous, nor is omr knowledge in the 

 least degree augmented. What life is we 

 stUl know not ; and without organization 

 there is, plainly, no discernible life. Op- 

 portunities, too, we observe, are carefully 

 sought to point out instances of particular 

 benevolence — some instanceskiU their young 

 to protect them from starvation. Proofs of 

 special providences, in like manner, are 

 studiously produced — as, where one species 

 inordinately increases, there its natural 

 enemies increase too — and this is said in 

 the teeth of prodigious devastations. These 

 are hazardous remarks ; for they seem, 

 often, to tell against the very principle they 

 are brought forward to support. Particular 

 severity does not readily establish general 

 protection — where aU is in the same hands. 

 Confession of ignorance is better, at all 

 times, than dogmrvtism. 



There is less twaddle, however, than in 

 any book of Natural History we ever read. 

 Speaking of the battles of ants, he says, " the 

 causes which give rise to these wars are, no 

 doubt, as important to them, as those which 

 urge human monarchs to devastate, and 

 human heroes to struggle for victory. The 

 ants will dispute furiously about a few square 

 feet of dust ; and such an object is of equal 

 importance to them, as a river or a moun- 

 tain to an emperor, &c." Similar non- 

 sense, however, is rare in this well-written 

 volume. 



Bees, and especially hive-bees, and ants, 

 acting in communities, as they do, and so 

 being more open to observation, occupy a 

 large space — Huber, of course, supplying the 

 cliief materials. The humble bee, and the 

 solitary bees, such as the mason, the car- 

 penter, the upholsterer, all of them but 

 little known, have every tiling told of them, 

 we believe, tliat is known. The old natu- 

 ralists talk of bees flying with little stones 

 to prevent their being carried away by the 

 wind ; and every body, of course, remem- 

 bers Virgil's lines to the same purpose. 

 These, it seems, must have been the mason- 

 liees carrying materials for building their 

 nests. 



"Whatever flowers, bees, wlien they are in 

 search of honey, first aligiit upon, they are 

 4 8 2 



