CLASS V. INSECTS. 297 



and reflects on the art and mechanism of their structure, 

 where such a number of vessels, fluids, and movements, 

 are collected into a point frequently invisible to the naked 

 eye, must acknowledge that they display the same wisdom 

 and power as fabricated the stately elephant and the enor- 

 mous whale. 



The insects, however, which by their visible size or 

 beauty attract our notice* are but the smallest part of the 

 class to which they belong: the whole earth teems with 

 animated matter ; every plant, every leaf, every grain, 

 supports creatures, which even the assistance of the mi- 

 croscope can scarcely render apparent to our eyes. 



In the higher ranks of existence, two animals nearly 

 resembling each other in form will be found to have a 

 similar history ; but insects, however much alike, will often 

 be found perfectly dissimilar; as well in their manner of 

 bringing forth and subsisting, as in the changes which they 

 undergo in their very limited lives. Thus, as this class is 

 wonderfully prolific, so its varieties are multiplied beyond 

 the power of enumeration. Almost every species has its 

 own peculiar habits, manners, appetites, and modes of 

 propagation; and the inquiries of ages directed to this 

 single point would barely be sufficient to furnish an outline 

 of entomology. 



An exact plan, therefore, of nature's operations in these 

 minute tribes is not to be expected ; yet such a general 

 picture may be given as is sufficient to evince the care 

 which Providence has manifested in the production of its 

 meanest creatures ; and to display that admirable economy 

 of nature, by which one kind of beings find subsistence 

 from the destruction of another, and life is perpetuated 

 without a pause, through every department of creation. 



Comparatively insignificant as insects must be deemed 

 when estimated on the scale of utility to man, nature has 

 been liberal in her embellishment of some of the orders. 

 Butterflies, cantharides, and all the shining flies, are at- 

 tractive by their beauty ; and the same wisdom that has 

 rendered some insects the objects of admiration for the 

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