26 MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



about the silk-worm, and compare it with what follows. These are the sort of 

 books which, along with standard works on Agriculture, parents should place in 

 reach of their children. We take from its pages the following : 



DESCRIPTION OF THE SILK- WORM, &c. 



ITS NATURAL HISTORY AND HABITS. 



It call never be too strongly impressed upon a mind anxious for the acquisition of know- 

 ledge, that the commonest things by wliich we are sinrounded are desei-s'ing of minute and 

 careful attention. The most profound investigations ol' Philosophy are necessarily connected 

 with the ordinary circumstances of our being, and of the world in which om- eveiy-day hfe 

 is spent. Witji regard to our own existence, the pulsation of the heart, the act of respiration, 

 the voluntary movement of our limbs, the condition of sleep, are among the most ordinaiy 

 operations of our nature ; and yet how long were the wisest of men strugghng with dark and 

 bewilderuig specidatious before they could offer anything like a satisfactoiy solution of these 

 phenomena, and how iar are we still from an accurate and complete knowledge of them ! 

 The science of Meteorology, which attempts to exjilain to us the philosophy of matters con- 

 stantly before oui- eyes, as dew, mist, and rain, is dependent for its illustiations upon a know- 

 ledge of the most complicated facts, such as the influence of heat and electricity upon the 

 ail' ; and this knowledge is at present so imperfect that even these common occuiTences of 

 the weather, which men have been observing and reasoning upon for ages, are by no means 

 satisfactoiily explained, or reduced to the precision that eveiy science should a.spire to. Yet, 

 however difficult it may be entirely to comprehend the phenomena we daily witness, every- 

 thing in Nature is fiiU of instruction. Thus the humblest flower of the field, although, to one 

 whose curiosity has not been excited, and whose understanding has, therefore, remained un- 

 infiinned, it may apj^ear worthless and contemptible, is valuable to the botanist, not only 

 with regard to its place in the aiTangement of this poition of the Creator's works, 

 but as it leads his mind foi-ward to the consideration of those beautiful provisions for the 

 support of vegetable life, wliich is the part of the physiologist to study and admire.* 



This train of reasoning is j)eculiarly applicable to the economy of insects. They constitute 

 a very large and interesting part of the animal kingdom. They are eveiywhere about us. 

 The spider weaves his curious web in our houses ; the caterpillar constiiicts his silken cell 

 in our gardens ; the wasp that hovers over our food has a nest not far removed horn us, 

 which she has assisted to build with the nicest art ; the beetle that crawls across our path is 

 also an ingenious and laborious mechanic, and has some curious instincts to exhibit to those 

 who feel an interest in watching his movements ; and the moth that eats into our clothes has 

 something to jilead fn- our jaity, for he came, hke us, naked into the world, and he has de- 

 sh-oyed our gannents, not in malice or wantonness, but that he may clothe hhnself with the 

 eame wool which we have stripped fi-oni the sheep. An observation of the habits of these 

 little creatures is full of valuable lessons, which the abLindance of the e.xamples lisis no ten- 

 dency to diminish. The more .such obsen'ations are inultiitlied, the more we are led foi-vvai'd 

 to the fi-eshest and the most delightful parts of knowledge ; the more do we leam to estimate 

 rightly the extraordinaiy provisions and most abundant resources of a Creative Providence ; 

 and the better do we appreciate our own relations with all the infinite varieties of Nature, and 

 our de^jendence, in common with the ephcmeroii that flutters its little hour in the sum- 

 mer sun, upon that Being in whose scheme of existence the humblest as well as the liighest 

 creatiu'e has its destined purposes. " If you speak of a stone," says St. Basil, " if you speak 

 of a jl//, a fftiaf, or a bee, your conversati'in will be a sort of demonsti'atioii of His power 

 whose hand foi-nied thfin, for the wisdom of the vi'orkman is connnonly perceived ui that 

 which is of little size. He who has stretched out the heavens, and dug up the bottom of the 

 sea, is also He who has jiierced a passage through the sting of the bee for the ejection of its 

 poison." 



If it lie granted that making discoveiies is one of the most satisfactory of Inunan pleasures, 

 then we may without hesitation affirm that the study of insects is one of the most delightful 

 braiicli''S of Natural Histoiy, fiir it affords peculiar facilities ibr its pursuit. These faciliriea 

 iire found in the almost inexhaustible variety which insects present to the curious obsen'er. 



There is. jjerhaps, no situation in which the lover of Nature and the observer of .mimallife 

 may not find o])portunitiiis for inci-easing his store of facts. It is told of a state prisoner under 

 a cruel and rigorous despotism, that when he was excluded from all commerce with man- 

 kind, and was shut out from books, he look an interest and fi)uiid consolation in the visits of 

 a spider ; and there is no iin])rol)al)ility in tlie story. The operations of that persecuted 

 creature arc among the most extraordinary exhibitions of mecliauical ingenuity ; and a daily 

 watchingof the workings of its instinct would beget admiration in a rightly coMsiitnled miii(l. 

 The j)oor prisoner had abundant leisure f"or the speculations in which the spiiler's web would 

 enchain his understanding. We have all of us, at one period or other of our lives, been 

 struck with some singular evidence of contrivance in the economy of insects, which we have 



" Insect Ai-chitecturc," vol, i. p. 9. London : Charles Knight & Co.. I.udgate-st. 1845. 

 fT4i 



