INSECTS. 301 



comes the next moment, perhaps, with all its mar- 

 vellous construction, instinct, and splendour, the 

 prey of some wandering bird ! and human wisdom 

 and conjecture are humbled to the dust. That 

 these events are ordinations of supreme intel- 

 ligence, for wise and good purposes, we are con- 

 vinced ; but are blind, beyond thought, as to se- 

 condary causes ; and admiration, that pure source 

 of intellectual pleasure, is almost alone permit- 

 ted to us. If we attempt to proceed beyond 

 this, we are generally lost in the mystery with 

 which the divine Architect has thought fit to sur- 

 round his works ; and perhaps our very aspirations 

 after knowledge increase in us a sense of our igno- 

 rance : every deep investigator into the works of 

 nature can scarcely possess other than an humble 

 mind. 



In all our pursuits we shall find in nature, where- 

 soever we can penetrate, a formation, a faculty adapt- 

 ed to all the wants and comforts of the creature^ 

 yet the objects of infinite wisdom in the creation of 

 this world of matter, animate and inanimate, will 

 probably never be made known to mankind ; for 

 though knowledge is in a constant progressive 

 state, and the attainments of science in latter years 

 have been comparatively prodigious, yet these 

 acquirements are in fact but entanglements : they 

 lead us deeper into surprise and perplexity, and the 

 little perceptions of light which we obtain serve to 



