300 INSECTS. 



vellous construction, instinct, and splendour, the 

 prey of some wandering bird ! and human wisdom 

 and conjecture are humbled to the dust. That 

 these events are ordinations of Supreme Intelligence, 

 for wise and good purposes, we are convinced ; but 

 are blind, beyond thought, as to secondary causes ; 

 and admiration, that pure source of intellectual 

 pleasure, is almost alone permitted to us. If we 

 attempt to proceed beyond this, we are generally 

 lost in the mystery with which the divine Architect 

 has thought fit to surround his works ; and, per- 

 haps, our very aspirations after knowledge increase 

 in us a sense of our ignorance: every deep investi- 

 gator into the works of Nature can scarcely possess 

 other than an humble mind. 



In all our pursuits we shall find in Nature, 

 wheresoever we can penetrate, a formation, a fa- 

 culty adapted to all the wants and comforts of the 

 creature; yet the objects of infinite wisdom in the 

 creation of this world of matter, animate and in- 

 animate, will probably never be made known to 

 mankind ; for though knowledge is in a constant 

 progressive state, and the attainments of science in 

 latter years have been comparatively prodigious, 

 yet these acquirements are, in fact, but entangle- 

 ments : they lead us deeper into surprise and 

 perplexity, and the little perceptions of light which 

 we obtain serve to show how hopeless any attempt 

 must be to penetrate the secrets of infinity a con- 

 viction, if we " dwell deep in the valley of humi- 

 lity/' that will in no manner discourage our pursuits, 



