68 THE MICROSCOPE AND ITS LESSONS. 



" The Author of Nature has given to insects means of 

 working which, though very simple, we cannot divine, 

 and which often we are not even able to perceive. 

 Whilst I was observing the trunk of our butterfly, be- 

 tween the columns of liquid which I saw ascending, there 

 were times when I saw, on the contrary, liquid descending 

 from the base of the trunk to the point. The descending 

 liquid occupied half or two-thirds of the tube. It was no 

 longer difficult to perceive how the butterfly is able to 

 nourish itself on honey, the thickest syrup, and even the 

 most solid sugar. 



"The fluid it sends down is very -liquid; it drives 

 against the sugar, moistens, and dissolves it. The butter- 

 fly pumps this liquid up again, when it is charged with 

 sugar, and conducts it along as far as the base of its 

 trunk, and beyond it." 



Amongst all the wise sayings of that deep thinker, 

 Dr. Macdonald, none is greater, in my opinion, than this : 

 " Until we see God as He is, and are changed into His 

 likeness, all our beliefs must partake more or less of 

 superstition; but if there be a God, the greatest super- 

 stition of all will be found to have consisted in denying 

 Him ; " * and as that other deep thinker, John Foster, 

 says, " He who explodes His laws, denies His existence." f 



As I have already told you, having devoted some 

 time to ants in another work, I will only now remind 

 you of the remarkable use these little " people " J make 

 of their brains, as illustrative of the best uses which 

 big-brained animals may make, by the right application, 

 of theirs ; and the anecdote I will use will remind us of 

 another about an elephant who once left the waggon he 

 was drawing, and whose keeper supposed he had bolted 



* From "Paul Faber." t Foster's "Essays." 



See Prov xxx. 25. 



