88 COLLECTION AND PRESERVATION OF INSECTS. 



us by the bee ; the construction of the honeycomb in hex- 

 agonal cells, with triangular bottoms, accomplishes these 

 objects in perfection : geometricians can discover no pos- 

 sible improvement on the plan which bees adopt. The 

 strength of an arch is taught us by the white ant, whose 

 plaster domes are so strong that men may safely ascend 

 them, and it has been said that wild bulls stand on them. 

 Mortar is made by several kinds of bees, and of the best 

 possible composition, hardening almost instantly on expo- 

 sure, and not being liable to be moistened again by wet. 

 Nocturnal lights are recommended to us by the use made 

 of them by the various fire-flies, which illuminate the trees 

 in tropical countries all night long with their sparkling 

 lamps. 



These facts, combined with the foregoing histories, tend 

 to show that insects perform no very inconsiderable part in 

 creation ; and that, whether as instruments of convenience 

 and utility, as sources of injury and annoyance, or as ex- 

 amples of industry and economy, they cannot reasonably 

 be despised. 



It is further objected against the entomologist, by those 

 who would allow there is some reason in the preceding 

 considerations, that he unnecessarily takes away animal 

 life; that he causes unnecessary pain; and that the 

 pursuit is altogether hardening to the heart. On the sub- 

 ject of taking life. We meet with few individuals in our 

 daily intercourse with the world, who would not consider 

 it a praiseworthy action, and indeed almost a matter of du- 

 ty, to tread on a worm in his garden, or to crush a wasp or 

 a spider in his window, and this avowedly for the sake of 

 his personal convenience ; an entomologist, if we make as 

 strong a case against him as possible, takes the lives of the 

 same beings for his personal gratification in a scientific 

 view; surely, self being the object in both instances, the 



