aiO SCRIPTURE NATURAL HISTORY. 



Fear ye not the reproach of men, 



Neither be ye afraid of their re'vilings ; 



For the moth shall oat them u|> like a garment, 



And the worm shall wu thorn like wool. 



But my righteousness shall be forever, 



And my salvation from generation to generation. cA. li. 7, 8, 



In Job xxvii. 18, there is another reference to this insect, deserv- 

 ing of notice. Speakinjr of the oppressors of the poor, the afflicted 

 patriarch says: 'He buildeth his house like a moth, or like a shed 

 which the watchman contriveth.' That is, feeble in it? structure 

 and materials, short in its duration, and equally incapable of resist- 

 ing a thunder-storm or a shower of rain. So, in chap. viii. 14: 

 'Thus, shall his support rot away, and the BUILDING OF THE SPIDER 

 be his reliance.' The genus phalaena, or moth, is divided into plant- 

 moths and cloth -moths ; the latter have generally been supposed to 

 be those immediately alluded to in this passage. This is doubtful, 

 but the question is not of consequence ; the house or building re- 

 ferred to is that provided by the insect in its larve or caterpillar 

 state, as a temporary residence during its wonderful change, from 

 a chrysalis to a winged or perfect insect. The slightriess of this 

 habitation is well known to every one who has attended to the cu- 

 rious operations of the silk-worm, or the tribes indigenous to the 

 plants of our own country. Of these, some construct a solitary 

 dwelling, while others are gregarious, vast numbers residing togeth- 

 er under one common web, marshalled with the most exact regu- 

 larity. The web of the cloth-moth is formed of the very substance 

 of the cloth on which it reposes, devoured for this purpose, and af- 

 terwards worked into a tubular case, with open extremities, and 

 generally approaching to the color of the cloth by which the worm 

 is nourished. 



Among the injunctions which our Saviour impressed on the 

 minds of his disciples, in his inimitable sermon, in Matthew, chap, 

 yi., we find one in which there is a reference to the insatiable vo- 

 racity of the moth : ' Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, 

 where moth and rust doth corrupt,' &c. ver. 19, 20. The destruc- 

 tion which they very frequently occasion among woollen clothes, 

 in our own country, is well known to almost every person, but in the 

 East there are different species of this insect, and some of a kindred 

 description, of whose ravages we can form but a very imperfect 

 conception. 



