THE CREATOR'S SKILL. 51 



him, or the son of man, that thou regardest 

 him ! " And shall not we, as we contemplate the 

 few particulars here set down of the wonders of 

 insect-life, exclaim, with even greater astonish- 

 ment, " What are these, that thou considerest 

 them ?" Let no one then say, that entomology, or 

 any other natural science whose field of study lies 

 chiefly among the minute portions of creation, are 

 profitless sciences, when they can reveal to us such 

 a display of the power, wisdom, and love of God, 

 as is exhibited even in this small portion of the 

 Life of an Insect. 



Let us then take up one of these eggs, so 

 minute, but containing within it the rudiments of 

 a being which is in time to assume a form of con- 

 siderable magnitude, by comparison, and to be 

 adorned with colours richer than art can boast of, 

 and let us examine it on the field of a tolerably 

 powerful microscope. We need not look far for a 

 specimen. In the dark corner of the ceiling in a 

 neglected room, after removing the mass of dust- 

 filled webs that have accumulated there for months, 

 we may find without difficulty a spider's nest of 

 eggs. A more pleasant place to search for insects' 

 eggs is, perhaps, the garden ; and if in the crevices 

 of the bark of the trees, or attached to twigs 



