248 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



being no longer fit for service, she was obliged to be 

 broken up a . 



And here, I think, I see you throw aside my papers, 

 and hear you exclaim " Will this enumeration of 

 scourges, plagues, and torments never be finished ? Was 

 the whole insect race created merely with punitive views, 

 and to mar the fair face of universal nature ? Are they all, 

 as our Saviour said figuratively of one genus, the scor- 

 pion, the powerful agents and instruments of the great 

 enemy of mankind 5 ?" If you View the subject in an- 

 other light, you will soon, my friend, be convinced that, 

 instead of this, insects generally answer the most bene- 

 ficial ends, and promote in various ways, and in an ex- 

 traordinary degree, the welfare of man and animals ; and 

 that the series of evils I have been engaged in enume- 

 rating mostly occur partially, and where they exceed 

 their natural limits ; God permitting this occasionally to 

 take place, not merely with punitive views, but also to 

 show us what mighty effects he can produce by instru- 

 ments seemingly the most insignificant: thus calling 

 upon us to glorify his power, wisdom, and goodness, so 

 evidently manifested whether he relaxes or draws tight 

 the reins by which he guides insects in their course, and 

 regulates their progress ; and more particularly to ac- 



* The ship here alluded to was the Albion, which was in such a 

 condition from the attack of insects, supposed to be white ants, that, 

 had not the ship been firmly lashed together, it was thought she would 

 have foundered on her voyage home. The late Mr. Kittoe informed 

 me that the Droguers or Draguers, a kind of lighter employed in the 

 West Indies in collecting the sugar, sometimes so swarm with ants, 

 of the common kind, that they have no other way of getting rid of 

 these troublesome insects than by sinking the vessel in shallow water. 



b Luke x. 19. 



