744 



A HISTORY OF 



the caterpillar continues to live, though its 

 heart and lungs, which is often the case, are 

 entirely eaten away. 



But it is not from their conformation alone 

 that insects are interior to other animals, but 

 from their instincts also. It is true that the 

 ant and the bee present us with very striking 

 instances of assiduity; but how far are theirs 

 beneath the marks of sagacity exhibited in 

 the hound or the stag ! a bee, taken from the 

 swarm, is totally helpless and inactive, inca- 

 pable of giving the smallest variation to its in- 

 stincts: it has but one single method of 

 operating, and, if put from that, it can turn to 

 no other. In the pursuits of the hound, there 

 is something like a choice; in the labours of 

 the bee, the whole appears like necessity or 

 compulsion. 



If insects be considered as bearing a rela- 

 tion to man, and as assisting him in the plea- 

 sures or necessities of life, they will, even in 

 this respect, sink in the comparison with the 

 larger tribes of nature. It is true that the bee, 

 the silk-worm, the cochineal fly, and the can- 

 tharides, render him signal services ; but how 

 many others of this class, are either noxious 

 or totally unserviceable to him. Even in a 

 country like ours, where all the noxious ani- 

 mals have been reduced by repeated as- 

 siduity, the insect tribes still maintain their 

 ground, and are buttoo often unwelcome intru- 

 ders upon the fruits of human industry. But 

 in more uncultivated regions, their annoyance 

 and devastations are terrible. What an un- 

 comfortable life must the natives lead in Lap- 

 land, and some parts of America, where if a 

 candle be lighted, the insects swarm in such 

 abundance, as instantly to extinguish it with 

 their numbers; where the inhabitants are 

 obliged to smear their bodies and faces with 

 tar, or some other composition, to protect 

 them from the puncture of their minute ene- 

 mies; where, though millions are destroyed, 

 famished millions are still seen to succeed, 

 and to make the torture endless! 



Their amazing number is also an argument 

 of their imperfection. It is a rule that ob- 

 tains through all nature, that the nobler ani- 

 mals are slowly produced, and that nature 

 acts with a kind of dignified economy; but 

 the meaner births are lavished in profusion, 

 and thousands are brought forth merely to 



supply the necessities of the more favourite 

 objects of Creation. Of all other productions 

 in nature, insects are the most numerous. 

 Vegetables that cover the surface of the earth 

 bear no proportion to their multitudes; and 

 though, at first sight, herbs of the field seem 

 to be the parts of organized nature produced 

 in the greatest abundance, yet upon minuter 

 inspection, we shall find every plant support- 

 ing a number of scarce perceptible creatures, 

 that fill up the various stages of youth, vigour, 

 and age, in the compass of a few days exist- 

 ence. 



All otlior animals are capable of some de- 

 gree of education ; their instincts may be sup- 

 pressed or altered ; the dog may be taught 

 to fetch and carry ; the bird to whistle a tune ; 

 and the serpent to dance ; but the insect has 

 but one invariable method of operating; no 

 arts can turn it from its instincts; and, in- 

 deed, its life is too short for instruction, as a 

 single season often terminates its existence. 



For these reasons, the insect tribe are de- 

 servedly placed in the lowest rank of Ani- 

 mated Nature; and, in general, they soem 

 more allied to the vegetables on which they 

 feed, than to the noble classes above them. 

 Many of them are attached to one vegetable, 

 often to a single leaf: there they increase; 

 with the flourishing plant, and die as it de- 

 cays; a few dnys fill up the measure of their 

 contemptible lives ; while the ends for which 

 they were produced, or the pictures they 

 enjoyed, to us, at least, are utterly unknown. 



Yet while I am thus fixing the rank of a cer- 

 tain class of animals, it seems necessary to 

 define the nature of those animals which arc 

 thus degraded. Definitions in general pro- 

 duce little knowledge ; but here, where the 

 shades of nature are so intimately blended, 

 some discrimination is necessary to prevent 

 confusion. The smallness of the animal, for 

 instance, does not constitute an insect; for 

 then, many of the lizard kind, which are not 

 above two inches long, would come under this 

 denomination, and if the smaller lizards, why 

 not the crocodile? which would be a terrible 

 insect indeed ! In the same manner, smallness, 

 with a slow creeping motion, does not con- 

 stitute an insect; for, though snails might be 

 called insects, with the same propriety the 

 whole tribe of sea shell- fish would then have 



