2 THE LIFE OF AN INSECT. 



insignificant as they seem, are capable of per- 

 forming; nor the astonishing lessons of wisdom 

 which even man may learn from these minute and 

 short-lived beings. So long as we are ignorant of 

 any part of God's creation, we may very probably 

 think light of it; but when we come to inquire into 

 the things we have formerly despised, and will give 

 a patient attention to what we before thought 

 beneath our notice, the tone of our remarks will 

 greatly alter. Now, we shall find in the meanest 

 things formed by the Divine hand inexhaustible 

 themes for wonder and praise, and innumerable 

 proofs that the great Almighty power which built 

 our round world, and countless worlds besides, 

 which fixed them with a firm decree in an appointed 

 course, has not been less displayed even in the 

 formation of a tiny insect, which is this hour alive, 

 and the next lost to being. 



The telescope shows us what God has created in 

 the innumerable millions of stars and suns which 

 every clear night look down with gentle beams 

 upon the earth ; it shows us that the earth on 

 which we dwell, compared to the worlds by which 

 it is surrounded, is as a grain of sand to a mighty 

 mountain. But the microscope, on the contrary, 



