APHIDES. 357 



which I have noticed them. We may fresh pot 

 the root, renewing it with separate earth, or keep it 

 in the windows of our habitation, where no insect of 

 the kind is observed to reside ; yet in due time it 

 will become infested with the aphis, whose depre- 

 dations, as far as I have observed, are the cause of 

 the dying down of the herbage. Feeding upon the 

 sap of plants, the foliage, deprived of its nutriment, 

 languishes ; and if there is not sufficient vigour to 

 renew this loss of vitality, it perishes. Voracious 

 beasts might ravage our flocks and our herds, but 

 could scarcely by their powers accomplish greater 

 injuries to the labours and possessions of man than 

 the seeming despicable creatures, weevils, wire- 

 worms, thrips, aphides, or those atoms which we de- 

 nominate the blight of some seasons. We should 

 accustom ourselves to view no portion of creation 

 with contempt: the particle which we may brush 

 away to-day with contumely, may, to-morrow, be- 

 come an instrument of our punishment or ruin. 



Where all is wonderful, it is difficult to pronounce 

 what is chiefly marvellous ; yet the insect world 

 exhibits most astonishing construction, viewed as to 

 its splendour or fabrication. This feeble aphis, 

 now crawling over my paper, with limbs indescrib- 

 ably slender, seems yet endowed with every requi- 

 site given to a larger body joints, integuments, 

 circulation of fluids, and every mechanical action 

 requisite for its being ; and yet the whole is so 

 fragile as to be overturned by a puff of my breath. 

 But smallness of bulk is no criterion of inferiority 



