37 



Essay, where we endeavoured to show the very small pro- 

 bability, that insects are in possession of the orgatiixm, ex- 

 ternal, internal, or both, which is indispensable to sensibility, 

 and which, if they had, they must also have those perceptions 

 out of which all practical knowledge is formed, and expe- 

 rience acquired.* Or, in other words, without the power 

 of comparing and combining ideas, which requires a brain, 

 it would be gratuitous to suppose ideas at all, or organs of 

 sense, by which to get them: for of what use would ab- 

 stract truths be to a beetle, or wherefore should he be placed 

 in a condition to acquire the elements of knowledge, which 

 from want of the power of combination could never serve 

 him thus anatomy supports our metaphysics, and meta- 

 physics our anatomy. 



And the argument which proves them incapable of ac- 

 quiring ideas, does it not also show them to be impassive 

 creatures ? And such I conclude them to be ; for con- 

 clude I must, that the moth, who burns himself over and 

 over again in my candle, as if he could not have enough 

 of it, does not feel pain ; or, if you will not listen to this 

 conclusion, you at least will admit that he is not a volun- 

 tary agent, and is incapable of obedience to the salutary 

 warning which would save his life. Am I then forced 

 to be the expositor of the law by which he burns him- 

 self? The whole insect race is comparatively epheme- 

 ral ! they do not all die (very few do) a natural death, f 

 but are destined, some to perish by flood, and some 

 by field ; some in the mustard-pot, and some in the 



* All knowledge is from sensation and reflection, as Locke, or 

 from sensation, memory, and judgment, as the Scotch Metaphysi- 

 cians say ; at any rate the practical knowledge concerning which 

 we enquire is doubtless so derived. 



f It may be said of them as of the short-lived despots of antiquity , 

 Ad generem Cereris sine cwde tt sanguine, pauci 

 Descendant 



