INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



CHAPTER 1. 



INTRODUCTION. 



T can never be too strongly impressed upon a mind anxious 

 -- for the acquisition of knowledge, that the commonest 

 things by which we are surrounded are deserving of minute 

 and careful attention. The most profound investigations of 

 Philosophy are necessarily connected with the ordinary 

 circumstances of our being, and of the world in which our 

 every-day life is spent. With regard to our own existence, 

 the pulsation of the heart, the act of respiration, the volun- 

 tary movement of our limbs, the condition of sleep, are 

 among the most ordinary operations of our nature ; and yet 

 how long were the wisest of men struggling with dark and 

 bewildering speculations before they could offer anything 

 like a satisfactory solution of these phenomena, and how far 

 are we still from an accurate and complete knowledge of 

 them! The science of Meteorology, which attempts to 

 explain to us the philosophy of matters constantly before our 

 eyes, as dew, mist, and rain, is dependent for its illustrations 

 upon a knowledge of the most complicated facts, such as the 

 influence of heat and electricity upon the air ; and this 

 knowledge is at present so imperfect, that even these common 

 occurrences of the weather, which men have been observing 

 and reasoning upon for ages, are by no means satisfactorily 

 explained, or reduced to the precision that every science 

 should aspire to. Yet, however difficult it may be entirely 



B 



