THE CHRISTIAN NATURALIST. 115 



large and extensive scale of the grandeur of creation's 

 God. Bat when from such objects we turn to those 

 small animated forms which we term insects, and 

 which swarm in myriads through every part of the 

 world which we inhabit, we are lost in the consideration 

 of that endless variety of skill which the Creator has 

 bestowed upon creatures which, though they appear, 

 at first sight, insignificant, are in reality highly im- 

 portant in the scale of being. To these has been given 

 not only a form which is ** curiously and wonderfully 

 wrought," but that peculiar faculty which naturalists 

 term instinct. God has furnised many of them with a 

 body, beautiful as well as curious. Some are equipped 

 with wings of almost celestial splendor ; and multitudes 

 of them are found, when closely examined by the help 

 of magnifying glasses, to be cased in glittering armour, 

 and possessed of weapons or instruments which man 

 has only invented for himself by the exercise of reason 

 during a long course of ages. 



* All their operations,' says an eminent Naturalist, 

 ' are performed with admirable precision and dexterity ; 

 and though they do not usually vafy the mode, yet that 

 mode is always the best that can be conceived for at- 

 taining the end in view. The instruments also with 



