244 INSECTS. 



those minute beings which seem to conceal themselves from ob- 

 servation, and Almighty power is never more strikingly exhibited 

 than in the concentration of organs in such an atom. In giving 

 life to this atom, and constructing in dimensions so minute so 

 many organs susceptible of different sensations, my admiration of 

 the Supreme Intelligence is much more heightened than by the 

 contemplation of the structure of the most gigantic animals." 

 " We attach, and with reason," says Reaumur, " a kind of conse- 

 quence to the knowledge of the faults and perfections of the pro- 

 ductions in the fine arts, such as poetry, music, painting, sculp- 

 ture, and architecture j but of the works of the Lord of Nature, 

 of this Master of Masters, we scarcely think, or that there 

 is any thing wonderful in their structure. There can indeed 

 be no room for criticism, where there is nothing but what is 

 admirable, and where the most perfect finite intelligences, the 

 more they study such objects the more they discover of their won- 

 ders. Yet this knowledge, so well calculated to elevate the 

 mind, and lead it to the contemplation of the source from which 

 all these wonders proceed, is regarded by many as frivolous or 

 of little importance. But he who looks upon an insect as mere- 

 ly a particle of moving wood or putrid matter, and who has no 

 idea of the marvellous organs of these minute animals, is in a 

 state of ignorance far more gross and blameable, than the man 

 who should confound the most finished productions in the fine 

 arts with the most rude and shapeless masses." 



In the previous classes of the Animal Kingdom the charac- 

 ters of the whole genera have been given, and at least one typi- 

 cal species ; but in the present class, the most numerous of all, 

 this has been found impossible. We have, therefore, given 

 the characters of the larger divisions, and an analytical table 

 of the genera belonging to each from Latreille, exemplifying 

 the characters of the group by detailed descriptions of the 

 more important genera and species. The leading families and 

 tribes, bearing most of them names derived from the generic ap- 

 pellations of Linnaeus, little difficulty will be experienced in re- 

 ferring any known insect to its particular family or tribe, and 

 in most cases to the particular genus in which it has been includ- 

 ed by modern entomologists. 



