270 



30. I need not then endeavour, from the end which 

 we distxm , : uo.k oi an industrious animal, to 

 find a reason for this work. I would not say, The 

 spider spreads a net tn catch the files ; but that the 

 spider catches the files because she spreads a net, c.^ 

 and she forms a ntt, because she has occasion to spin. 

 The end is not less certain, or less evident ; only, it is 

 not the animal that has proposed ir, but the AUTHOR 

 of the animal. What loss would natural theology sus- 

 tain by this method of reasoning 1 Would it not, on 

 the contrary, acquire a greater degree of exactness ? Let 

 us reason then on 1h& operations of animals as we do 

 on their structure. The same WISDOM which has con- 

 structed and arranged with so much art their various 

 organs, and has caused them to concur to one deter- 

 minate end, has likewise caused those numerous opera- 

 tions, which are the natural effects of the economy of 

 the animal to contribute to one end. He is directed 

 towards his end by an invisible HAND ; he executes 

 with precision, from the very beginning, the works 

 which we admire; he seems to act as if he was ca- 

 pable of reasoning, to turn about with propriety, and 

 to change his method as there is occasion, and in all 

 this only obeys those secret springs by which he is 

 actuated; he is only a blind instrument that cannot 

 judge of his own action, but is excited 1o it by that 

 ADORABLE MIND which has traced out to every in- 

 sect his little circle, as he 4ias marked out to each 

 planet its proper orbit. When, therefore, I see an 

 insect working on the construction of a net, a cone 

 or a chrysalis, I am seized with respect, because I 

 am beholding a sight where the SUPREME ARTIST is 

 concealed behind the scene. 



3 1 . Many species of solitary bees content them- 

 selves with penetrating into the earth ; scoop out cy- 

 lindrical cavities therein, and polish the walls. They 

 deposit an egg there, and amass a sufficient quantity 

 of nourishment. 



There is another species of these worms that pierce 



