132 THE LIFE OF AN INSECT. 



severity of winter. From these considerations we 

 may readily perceive how completely the well- 

 being of a great nation, with the lives of a large 

 portion of its inhabitants, are dependent upon the 

 preserving, protecting, and restraining influence 

 of the providence of God. With the return of 

 every year, we may say, the question is asked by 

 this tribe of insects alone, " Shall we go forth to 

 destroy and devour at once, or shall we refrain ?" 

 With every year the silent reply is experienced by 

 man in the unmolested condition of his fields, 

 gardens, and vineyards. " Oh !" we may ejaculate 

 with the Psalmist, " Oh that men would consider 

 these things ! then should they understand the 

 loving-kindness of the Lord." 



Another and more remarkable instance of the 

 destruction caused by vegetable-eating larvae may 

 be quoted from the fertile pages of the same 

 illustrious naturalist, M. Eeaumur, particularly 

 because it is the narration of one who was an 

 eye-witness to the facts of which he speaks. " In 

 two journeys," he writes, " which I made from 

 Paris to Poitou, at the commencement of the 

 month of September in 1730, and also in 1731, 

 I noticed that from Paris all the way to Tours 



