CHAPTER IV. 



SUB-KINGDOM AETICULATA. — IXSECTA. — ARACHNIDA. 



MONG tlie numerous objects 

 which engage the attention 

 of the microscopist, the in- 

 sect tribes in general are far 

 I from being the least 

 interesting ; their 

 curious and won- 

 derful economy is a subject 

 w^ell deserving especial in- 

 vestigation. Earth, air, and 

 water, teem with the 

 various tribes of insects, 

 many of which are invisible to the unassisted eye, but 

 presenting, when viewed with the microscope, the most 

 beautiful mechanism in their frame-work, the most perfect 

 regularity in their laws of being, and exhibiting the same 

 wondrous adaptation of parts to the creature's wants, 

 which, throughout creation, furnishes traces of the love 

 and wisdom that so strongly mark the works of God.^ 



" I cannot," says the learned Swammerdam, " after an 

 attentive examination of the nature and structure of both 

 tlie least and largest of the great family of nature, but 

 allow the less an equal, perhaps a superior degree of 

 dignity. Whoever duly considers the conduct and instinct 

 of the one with the manners and actions of the other, 

 must acknowledge all are under the direction. and control 

 of a superior and supreme Intelligence ; which, as in the 



(1) We commend to the reader the excellent Introduction to Entomology, by 

 Kirby and Spence. Longmans. Art. "Insecta," Cyclop. Ant. and Physio. 



pp2 



