LEPIDOPTEROUS INSECTS. 73 



The wasp, fine architect, surrounds his domes 

 With paper foliage, and suspends his combs ; 

 Secured from frost, the bee industrious dwells, 

 And fills for winter all her waxen cells ; 

 The limning spider, with adhesive line, 

 Weaves his firm net immeasurably fine ; 

 The wren, when embryon eggs her cares engross, 

 Seeks the soft down, and lines the cradling moss ; 

 Conscious of change, the silkworm nymphs begin, 

 Attach 'd to leaves, their gluten-threads to spin, 

 Then, round and round they weave their circling heads, 

 Sphere within sphere, and form their silken beds. 

 Say, did these fine volutions first commence 

 From clear ideas of the tangent sense ? 

 From sires to sons by imitation caught, 

 Or in dumb language by tradition taught ? 

 Or did they rise in some primeval site 

 Of larva-gnat, or microscopic mite ; 

 And, with instinctive foresight, still await 

 On each vicissitude of insect state ? 

 Wise to the present, nor to future blind, 

 They link the reasoning reptile to mankind ! 

 Stoop, selfish Pride ! survey thy kindred forms 

 Thy brother emmets and thy sister worms ! * 



OF TASTE. 



As in the sense of touch, analogy leaves us no 

 grounds for supporting the doctrine of taste in insects ; 

 for if the physiological distinctions in the higher 

 animals were held up as tests, then it might be inferred. 



* DARWIN'S Temple of Nature, p. 119. 



