PREFACE. 



In offering to my friends a little book, written under cir- 

 cumstances of peculiar disadvantage, I feel that justice to 

 rflyself requires an explanation of these circumstances, and 

 that this explanation will sufficiently account for my having 

 conceived the idea of writing a book at all. 



Confined to my bed with a painful disease, and suffering 

 from an affection of the eyes which rendered me incapable 

 of reading, writing or doing any thing which requires fixed 

 sight, idleness became almost insupportable; I longed for 

 something to do ; something which would pleasantly and 

 profitably occupy my time, and divert my thoughts from 

 bodily suffering. But my situation seemed to cut off every 

 resource. At length I procured an indented card upon which 

 I learned to write with closed or bandaged eyes; and rejoicing 

 in this newly acquired sense, for such it seemed to me, I 

 was anxious to turn it to advantage. 



From childhood I have been interested in insects. In 

 their infinite variety and exceeding beauty ; in the admirable 

 construction even of the most minute among them ; and in the 

 operations of their instinct, they manifest in a peculiarly 

 interesting manner, the power and goodness of the Crea- 

 tor. 



" If you speak of a fly, a gnat or a bee," says Basil, 

 "your conversation .will be a sort of demonstration of 

 His power whose hand formed them ; for the wisdom of the 



