LETTER LXJ. 



investigation, I shall only in general terms observe, 

 that in contemplating the commonwealth of bees, 

 and viewing the exactness of their police, the regu- 

 larity of their civil and domestic ceconomy, the ac- 

 tivity and assiduity of their industrious exertions, and, 

 abovt^ all, the geometrical exactness with which 

 they fabricate the honey-comb, and construct their 

 cells, scepticism itself can scarcely avoid discovering 

 the agency of an Almighty hand in directing their 

 various and wonderful operations. 



Among the innumerable tribes of insects that 

 swarm in the earth and the air, I shall only mention- 

 one more in particular, which, from its being so fre- 

 quently the subject of scriptural allusion, I cannot en- 

 tirely omit. This is the locust, of which the sacred 

 writings give such terrific descriptions. 



The scriptures being written in a country where 

 the locusts made a distinguished figure in the picture 

 of nature, have exhibited striking views of multitudi- 

 nous numbers, and dreadful rapacity. In the Old 

 Testament, an invading army, whose multitudes ap- 

 pear innumerable, and every where carry terror and 

 desolation, is generally compared to a swarm of lo- 

 custs; and these destructive insects are often repre- 

 sented as the instruments of Divine vengeance. 



This winged insect, of which their devastating- 

 voracity has in many countries been too often experi- 

 enced, is a larger species of the grasshopper genus. 

 It is about three inches long, and has two horns or 

 feelers of about one inch. The head and horns are 

 of a brownish colour: it is blue about the mouth, and 

 on the inside of the larger legs. The shield that co- 

 vers the back is greenish; the upper side of the body 

 brown, spotted with black, and the underside purple. 

 The upper wings are of a dusky brown,, the under 

 wings of a lighter brown, and tinctured with green, 

 and more transparent, with a cloud of dark spots near 

 the tips. No animal in the creation multiplies so ra- 

 jgidly as these in a warm climate and a dry soil; for 

 there its eggs are safely deposited, and speedily 

 hatched by the heat of the sum 



