42 



LETTER IV. 



INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



DIRECT INJURIES. 



Is the letter which I devoted to the defence of Entomology, I gave you 

 reason to expect, more effectually to obviate the objection drawn from the 

 supposed insignificance of insects, that I should enter largely into the 

 question of their importance to us both as instruments of good and evil. 

 This I shall now attempt; and, as I wish to leave upon your mind a 

 pleasant impression with respect to my favourites, I shall begin with the 

 last of these subjects the injury which they do to us. 



The Almighty ordains various instruments for the punishment of offend- 

 ing nations ; sometimes he breaks them to pieces with the iron rod of war ; 

 at others the elements are let loose against them ; earthquakes and floods 

 of fire, at his word, bring sudden destruction upon them; seasons un- 

 friendly to vegetation threaten them with famine; the blight and mildew 

 realise these threats ; and often, the more to manifest and glorify his 

 power, he employs means, at first sight, apparently the most insignificant 

 and inadequate to effect their ruin; the numerous tribes of insects are his 

 armies 1 , marshalled by him, and by his irresistible command impelled to 

 the work of destruction : where he directs them they lay waste the earth, 

 and famine and the pestilence often follow in their train. 



The generality of mankind overlook or disregard these powerful, because 

 minute, dispensers of punishment; seldom considering in how many ways 

 their welfare is affected by them; but the fact is certain, that should it 

 please God to give them a general commission against us, and should he 

 excite them to attack, at the same time, our bodies, our clothing, our 

 houses, our cattle, and the produce of our fields and gardens, we should 

 soon be reduced, in every possible respect, to a state of extreme wretched- 

 ness ; the prey of the most filthy and disgusting diseases, divested of a 

 covering, unsheltered, except by caves and dungeons, from the inclemency 

 of the seasons, exposed to all the extremities of want and famine; and in 

 the end, as Sir Joseph Banks, speaking on this subject, has well observed 2 , 

 driven with all the larger animals from the face of the earth. You may 

 smile, perhaps, and think this a high-coloured picture, but you will recol- 

 lect, I am not stating the mischiefs that insects commonly do, but what 

 they would do, according to all probability, if certain counter-checks re- 

 straining them within due limits had not been put in action ; and which 

 they actually do, as you will see, in particular cases, when those counter- 

 checks are diminished or removed. 



Insects may be said, without hyperbole, to have established a kind of 

 universal empire over the earth and its inhabitants. This is principally 



1 Joel, ii. 25. 



2 On the Slight in Corn, p. 9. 



