THE SILK-WORM. 



horrible. Of this dangerous insect nine different sph- 

 eres have been enumerated, and all of them reraania- 

 ble for their malignity. Indeed there are few ani- 

 mals more dreadfully mischievous than the scorpion. 

 As it frequently takes refuge in houses, it is found to 

 be 2t dangerous inmate, and often stings those among 

 whom it resides. 



The malevolent disposition of the Scorpion ha* 

 been proved by a number of experiments which shew 

 that no animal in creation is endued with so irrascible 

 a nature. Its fierceness is dangerous not only to all 

 other creatures that approach it, but also to its own 

 species; for scorpions are the most cruel enemies to- 

 one another, which is a happy means of preventing 

 the too great increase of their numbers, as whenever 

 two of them meet, a combat immediately commences, 

 and they never cease fighting till one of them be de- 

 stroyed. Maupertius put a hundred of them together 

 in a vessel, and they scarcely came into contact be- 

 fore they began to exert their ra^e in mutual destruc- 

 tion. Nothing was to be seen but universal carnage ; 

 and in a few days there remained only fourteen which 

 had killed and devoured all the rest. He also enclos- 

 ed in a glass vessel a female scorpion big with young/ 

 and she was observed to devour them as soon as they 

 were brought forth : only one of the number escaped 

 the general destruction by taking refuge on the back 

 of the old one; and this parricidal ofLspriivg of an un- 

 natural mother soon avenged the cause of its brethren 

 by killing its cruel parent. These observations de- 

 monstrate the propriety of the scriptural metaphors, 

 which exhibit the- scorpion as the lively emblem of 

 finished malignity. 



THE SILK- WORM 



is as beneficial as the .scorpion is noxious, and produces 

 an article of ornament and commerce universally 

 known and admired. This insect is of the caterpillar 

 genus, of a whitish: colour, 'with twelve feet, arid at 

 last produces a butterfly of the moth kind, ft is a 

 native of China and the easternmost parts of Asia,, 

 and has been gradually introduced into various pacts 

 s 3 " 



