268 MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 



now alighting upon the earth and waters, and now leav- 

 ing them to follow the impulse of their various instincts ; 

 sometimes travelling singly ; at other times in countless 

 swarms : these the busy children of the day, and those 

 of the night. If you return to your apartment there 

 are these ubiquitaries some flying about others pacing 

 against gravity up the walls or upon the ceiling others 

 walking with ease upon the glass of your windows, and 

 some even venturing to take their station on your own 

 sacred person, and asserting their right to the lord of 

 the creation. 



This universal movement and action of these restless 

 little animals gives life to every part and portion of our 

 globe, rendering even the most arid desert interesting. 

 From their visitations every leaf and flower becomes ani- 

 mated ; the very dust seems to quicken into life, and the 

 stones, like those thrown by Deucalion and Pyrrha, to 

 be metamorphosed into locomotive beings. In the va- 

 riety of motions which they exhibit, we see, as Cuvier 

 remarks % those of every other description of animals. 

 They walk, run, and jump with the quadrupeds ; they 

 fly with the birds ; they glide with the serpents ; and 

 they swim with the fish. And the provision made for 

 these motions in the structure of their bodies is most 

 wonderful and various. " If I was minded to expatiate," 

 says the excellent Derham, " I might take notice of the 

 admirable mechanism in those that creep ; the curious 

 oars in those amphibious insects that swim and walk ; the 

 incomparable provision made in the feet of such as walk 

 or hang upon smooth surfaces ; the great strength and 

 spring in the legs of such as leap ; the strong-made feet 

 a Anatom. Compar. i. 444. 



