A HISTORY OF INSECTS IN GENERAL. 



743 



or INSECTS or THE FIRST ORDER. 



CHAPTER CLXVII. 



OF INSECTS IN GENERAL. 



HAVING gone through the upper ranks of 

 nature, we descend to that of insects, a sub- 

 ject almost inexhaustible from the number of 

 its tribes and the variety of their appearance. 

 Those who have professedly written on this 

 subject seem to consider it as one of the 

 greatest that can occupy the human mind, as 

 the most pleasing in Animated Nature. "After 

 an attentive examination," says Svvammer- 

 dam, " of the nature and anatomy of the 

 smallest as well as the largest animals, I can- 

 not help allowing the least an equal, or per- 

 haps a superior, degree of dignity. If, while 

 we dissect with care the larger animals, we 

 are filled with wonder at the elegant disposi- 

 tion of their parts, to what a height is our 

 astonishment raised, when we discover all 

 these parts arranged in the least in the same 

 regular manner ! Notwithstanding the small- 

 ness of ants, nothing hinders our preferring 

 them to the largest animals. If we consider 

 either their unwearied diligence, their won- 

 derful strength, or their inimitable propensity 

 to labour. Their amazing love to their young 

 is still more unparalleled among the larger 

 classes. They not only daily carry them to 

 such places as may afford them food ; but if, 

 by accident, they are killed, and even cut 

 into pieces, they, with the utmost tenderness, 



will carry them away piecemeal in their arms. 

 Who can show such an example among the 

 larger animals which are dignified with the 

 title of perfect ? Who can find an instance 

 in any other creature that can come in com- 

 petition with this ?" 



Such is the language of a man, who, by 

 long study, became enamoured of his subject; 

 but to those who judge less partially, it will 

 be found that the insect tribe, for every rea- 

 son, deserve but the last and lowest rank in 

 Animated Nature. As in mechanics the most 

 complicated machines are required to per- 

 form the nicest operations, so in anatomy the 

 noblest animals are most variously and won- 

 derfully made. Of all living beings, man 

 offers the most wonderful variety in his inter- 

 nal conformation ; quadrupeds come next, 

 and other animals follow in proportion to their 

 powers or their excellencies. Insects seem 

 of all others the most imperfectly formed : 

 from their minuteness, the dissecting knife 

 can go but a short way in the investigation ; 

 but one thing argues an evident imperfection, 

 which is, that many of them can live a long 

 time, though deprived of those organs which 

 are necessary to life, in the higher ranks of 

 nature. Many of them are furnished with 

 lungs and a heart, like nobler animals ; yet 



