THE INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 17 



usual cost of which is one dollar per lens, is all that is usually required. 

 It is a commou mistake to suppose that insects canuot be studied and 

 classified without the use of a complex and costly microscope. Such 

 instruments are useful only to examine excessively minute or transpa- 

 rent objects, and though sometimes indispensable to the professional 

 entomologist, they are rarely used in the ordinary study of insects. 



THE INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 



Instinct is that faculty by which animals are enabled to discover their 

 food, construct their nests, and provide for their young-, and to perform 

 tliese operations without having had any previous education or experi- 

 ence, j^fany of the manifestations of this faculty are truly wonderfnl 

 and unaccountable. Such are the mathematically accurate construction 

 of the cells of the honeycomb ; the curious economy of the ants and 

 bees ; and the provisions which many kinds of insects make for the fu- 

 ture snbsistence of their young, even in advance of their existence. 



Instinct is often spokeii of as an imperfect or partially (kn^eloped rea- 

 son, but its relation to that faculty can be, at most, only tliat of a very 

 remote analogy. It differs front reason in its in variableness and its al- 

 most absolute infallibility, but most essentially in its independency of 

 ])revious knowledge and experience. Reason acts only by virtue of what 

 is already" known, ami man, who vastly excells all other animals in his 

 reasoning powers, approaches perfection in any comi)lex work only by 

 long study and practice ; the honey-bee, on the contriary, constructs its 

 first cell with such mathematical accuracy that it cannot be improved 

 by any subsequent experience- 

 Some of the higher animals, such as the horse and the dog, give proof 

 of the possession of a reasoning liK'ulty similar to our own, and inferior 

 only in degree. But whilst the manifestations of reason are fainter as 

 we descend in the animal scale, instinct becomes more remarkable, and 

 in insects especially, in which reason is almo§t if not absolutely wanting, 

 instinct is exhibited in its highest perfection, far surpassing, in many 

 instances, in accuracy and prescience, the reason of man himself. 



Of the nature of the instinct of animals, as of that of the human 

 mind, we know absolutely nothing; and we can only confess our igno- 

 rance by referring its wonderful manifestations to the direct agency of 

 the Creator. 



INSECTS FROM A PRACTICAL OR ECONOMIC POINT OF VIEW. 



In regaKling insects from this point of view, we have to consider 



them in both their beneficial and their in^irious relations. The directly 



beneficial insects are almost limited to the three well-known species : 



the honey-bee, the silk- worm and the cochineal-insect 5 whereas, those 



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