172 SPECIES NOT 



thing that lives, and then enunciate the dreadful 

 canon of "natural selection," which says, "let the 

 strongest live and the weakest die." 



Did he ever in fact contemplate nature as the 

 work of Him, without whose knowledge "not a 

 sparrow falleth to the ground!" who has made 

 everything with a beauty and perfection no 

 finite mind can comprehend, but who has shewn 

 in all living things, whether man, with his com- 

 plex organization, or the blade of grass, which 

 springs up in the field, or the flower that grows 

 upon the rock, a perfect adaptation of structure 

 to circumstances of life, which to all time will 

 proclaim in a voice, that no bungling speculator 

 can ever drown, "Oh Lord, how manifold are Thy 

 works; in wisdom Thou hast made them all!" 



With regard to the larva of the ichneumon 

 living upon the body of the caterpillar, no better 

 instance of Creative Design could be adduced. 

 Many of my readers may perhaps have never 

 seen or read this history, and I will therefore 

 detail it as observed frequently by my friend 

 Dr. Maclean. 



The insect Sphex sabulosus is one of those 

 large ichneumon flies, with long pointed bodies 

 and gaily-coloured wings, which may be seen run- 

 ning about the leaves of plants and trees in the 

 hot summer. The members of the family generally 

 do this for the purpose of finding a caterpillar, 

 into which they insert their ovipositor, and de- 

 posit an egg; the whole process is done in an 

 instant, and the unhappy caterpillar shews at first 



