CHAPTER V. 



ARTICULATA. INSECTS. 



AMONGST the numerous objects which en- 

 gage the attention of the microscopist, the 

 insect tribes in general are far from being 

 the least interesting ; and their 

 curious and wonderful economy is 

 a subject well deserving especial investiga- 

 tion. Earth, air, and water, teem with the 

 various tribes of insects, for the most part 

 invisible to the unassisted eye of man, but 

 presenting, when viewed with the micro- 

 scope, the most beautiful mechanism in their frame-work, the most 

 perfect regularity in their laws of being, and exhibiting the same 

 wondrous adaptation of parts to the creature's wants, which, through- 

 out all creation, furnishes traces of the love and wisdom that so 

 strongly mark the works of God. 



" I cannot," says the excellent Swammerdam, " after an attentive 

 examination of the nature and structure of both the least and largest 

 of the great family of nature, but allow the less an equal, perhaps a 

 superior degree of dignity. Whoever duly considers the conduct and 

 instinct of the one, with the manners and actions of the other, must 

 acknowledge all are under the direction and control of a superior and 

 supreme Intelligence ; which, as in the largest it extends beyond the 

 limits of our comprehension, escapes our researches in the smallest. 

 If, while we dissect with care the larger animals, we are filled with 

 wonder at the elegant disposition of their limbs, the inimitable order 

 of their muscles, and the regular direction of their veins, arteries, and 

 nerves, to what a height is our astonishment raised when we discover 

 all these parts arranged in the least in the same regular manner ! 

 How is it possible but that we must stand amazed, when we reflect 

 that those little animals, whose bodies are smaller than the point of 



