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CHAPTER XIV. 



ENTOMOLOGY. 



THE senses of insects are well known to present, 

 in many cases, most extraordinary acuteness, the 

 details of which not only give inductive evidence 

 of wisdom and goodness, but when brought into 

 relation with those of man, present equally in- 

 teresting analogical proofs of design a design 

 which, as I have already stated, I believe to have 

 been at once that of producing harmony through, 

 out creation, and of affording lessons of humility 

 to that most perfect of God's sublunary creatures, 

 to whom the means and the faculty of observa- 

 tion have been given. Upon the admission of 

 this, must depend the analogical arguments in 

 favour of the fact, that the individual happiness 

 of the creature has been produced by the adap- 

 tation of its structure to its wants and necessi- 

 ties, and of its place of residence to its habits of 

 life. Is not the contemplation of the fitness of 

 these relations the birth-right of mankind ? and, 

 in reflecting on the beings of the external world, 

 on essences which differ from his own, and enjoy- 

 ments which he can only judge of by comparison, 

 does he riot admit that the observation of the 

 habits and manners of living objects in other 



