OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 19 



which I shall hereafter describe to you, of the leaf-cutter bees, and which 

 he conceived to be the effect of witchcraft portending some terrible misfor- 

 tune. By the advice of the priest of the parish he even took a journey 

 from Rouen to Paris, to show them to his master : but he, happily having 

 more sense than the man, carried them to M. Nollet, an eminent naturalist, 

 who having seen similar productions was aware of the cause, and opening 

 one of the cases, while the gardener stood aghast at his temerity, pointed 

 out the grub that it contained, and thus sent him back with a light heart, 

 relieved from all his apprehensions. 1 



Every one has heard of the death-watch, and knows of the superstitious 

 notion of the vulgar, that in whatever house its drum is heard one of the 

 family will die before the end of the year. These terrors, in particular in- 

 stances, where they lay hold of weak minds, especially of sick or hypo- 

 chondriacal persons, may cause the event that is supposed to be prognosti- 

 cated. A small degree of entomological knowledge would relieve them 

 from all their fears, and teach them that this heart-sickening tick is caused 

 by a small beetle (Anobium tessellatum) which lives in timber, and is merely 

 a call to its companion. Attention to Entomology may therefore be 

 rendered very useful in this view, since nothing certainly is more desirable 

 than to deliver the human mind from the dominion of superstitious fears 

 and false notions, which, having considerable influence on the conduct of 

 mankind, are the cause of no small portion of evil. 



But as we cannot well guard against the injuries produced by insects, or 

 remove the evil, whether real or arising from misconceptions respecting 

 them, which they occasion, unless we have some knowledge of them ; so 

 neither without such knowledge can we apply them, when beneficial, to 

 our use. Now it is extremely probable that they might be made vastly 

 more subservient to our advantage and profit than at present, if we were 

 better acquainted with them. It is the remark of an author, who himself 

 is no entomologist : " We have not taken animals enough into alliance 

 with us. The more spiders there were in the stable, the less would the 

 horses suffer from the flies. The great American fire-fly should be im- 

 ported into Spain to catch mosquitos. In hot countries a reward should be 

 offered to the man who could discover what insects feed upon fleas." 2 It 

 would be worth our while to act upon this hint, and a similar one of Dr. 

 Darwin. Those insects might be collected and preserved that are known 

 to destroy the Aphides and other injurious tribes ; and we should thus be 

 enabled to direct their operations to any quarter where they would be 

 most serviceable ; but this can never be done till experimental agricul- 

 turists and gardeners are conversant with insects, and acquainted with their 

 properties and economy. How is it that the' Great Being of beings 

 preserves the system which he has created from permanent injury, in con- 

 sequence of the too great redundancy of any individual species, but by em- 

 ploying one creature to prey upon another, and so overruh'ng and directing 

 the instincts of all, that they may operate most where they are most wanted ! 

 We cannot better exercise the reasoning powers and faculties with which 

 he has endowed us, than by copying his example. We often employ the 

 larger animals to destroy each other, but the smaller, especially insects, we 

 have totally neglected. Some may think, perhaps, that in aiming to do 



1 Reaum. vi. 99, 100. Kirby Man. Ap. Ang. I 157, 158. 



2 Southey's Madoc, 4to. Notes, 519. 



2 



