262 INSECTS. 



fupporting a number of fcarce. perceptible creatures, that fill up the va* 

 rtous ftages of youth,- vigour, and age, in the compafs of a few days ex- 

 iftence. Infefts have but one invariable method of operating ; no arts 

 can turn their in(lin<fts ; and generally their life is too fhort for inftruc- 

 tion» as^a fingle feafon often terminates it. ^Many are attached to one 

 vegetable, or a fingle leaf; they increafewith the flourifhing plant, and 

 die as it decays ; 'a few days fill up the meafure of their lives : the ends 

 of their produdion, or its pleafures, are utterly unknown to us. 



Infcds are little animals without red blood, bones or cartilages, fur- 

 nifhed with a trunk, or elfe a mouth, opening lengthwife, with eyes 

 which they are incapable of covering, and with lungs which have their 

 openings on the fides, Almoft every fpecies has its diftinft hiftory, and 

 exhibits manners and appetites peculiarly its own ; generally prolific be- 

 yond computation, and multiplied beyond defcription. 



To enumerate every fpecies of flies, or moths, would be fruitlefs j to 

 give an hiftory, utterly impracticable. Mr. Ray thought there could 

 not be lefs than twenty thoufand kinds j and one gentleman of my ac- 

 quaintance, himfelf, caught eight hundred in one feafon in England ; 

 yet poflefled very far from a majority of our natural tribes. When foufed 

 from their fl:ate of annual torpidity, and beginning to feel the genial in- 

 iiucnce of fpring, they exhibit new life in every part of nature. 



By feledling Ibme fimilitudes in propagation, manners, or form, we 

 derive a hint for grouping feveral in one defcription, and thus jfhorten 

 the labour of their hiftory. The firft that offer are thofe without wings, 

 crawling on every plant and fpot of earth. Of thefe, fome never obtain 

 wings ; others only wait their growing wings, to arrive at perfection. 



The former may be confidered as the JirJ} clafs of infeCts. All thefe, 

 the flea and the wood-loufe excepted, are produced from an egg, and 

 fufFer no further change of form, but continue to grow larger till they die. 



The fecond order, when produced from the egg, have their wings 

 cafed up fo as not to appear. This, however, does not prevent 

 the animars running, leaping, and moving with celerity ; but when the 

 cafe burfts, and the wings expand, all its motions become more exten- 

 five and perfed. 



The third order of infeCls is the moth and butterfly kind. Thefe have 

 four wings, covered with a mealy fubftance of various colours, which 

 when handled comes off on the fingers; and, if examined by the micro- 

 fcope, appears like fcales or feathers, with which the wing is nicely em- 

 broidered. They are firft hatched from an egg, in the form of a cater- 

 l pillar 



