34 



cling to his cord till the danger is gone by ; thou per- 

 suadest the Elater to pretend to be dead, and whisperest to 

 the whole hypolithic community to crouch like hares at the 

 approach of human foot step 1 . As to the higher animals 

 the cerebral part of the creation they indeed may have 

 heads and hearts, and minds, and conduct themselves like 

 half-reasoning creatures ; but in the economy of insect 

 life. Legislator, Tactician, Geometer, and Layer-up in 



barns, thou reignest paramount and alone! 



To this Feu de joie, which T have out of politeness per- 

 mitted my opponent to let off, what can I reply? Verily 

 what he has alleged is sufficiently formidable ! but I shall 

 decline the rhetoric, in which I feel he has the advantage 

 of me, and throw into the notes chiefly, a few instances a 

 little out of the common way cases, no doubt, in which 

 he would suppose the personal intelligence of his protegees 

 beyond suspicion; and if it shall appear thereafter, that 

 the promptings of this ubiquitous Captain Rock, whom 

 merely to name, has hitherto either silenced objection or 

 satisfied inquiry, are sometimes of a very ambiguous cha- 

 racter that, for instance, the instinct of an animal is often 

 positively foolishness, as far as its own security is con- 

 cerned, why we must either modify our creeds accord- 

 ingly, or cling to that " mentis gratissimus error" which 

 led the dreamer of the orchestra to be angry at those who 

 woke him. 



It is far from our object to invalidate a single fact either 

 of those we have, or may not have related ; but we are 

 not all compelled to look at facts in the same way ; and 

 though, like others, we can endure to hear of "ilie ants' 

 republic and the realm of bees, 91 we have taken leave to doubt, 

 if the Supreme Intelligence hath indeed lodged such pro- 

 found wisdom in the small frame of which the motions 

 are directed by it. We desire to " sing praises uith 

 understanding ;" and without vain conjectures concerning 

 what we take upon us to call final causes, to study, as 



