SIMON BROWN'S ADDRESS. 655 



different individuals. But the most wonderful part of this 

 brilliant and beautiful little creature, is its spinning apparatus; 

 more wonderful in its construction than the organization and 

 power of any other animal, I have ever contemplated. No 

 art of man has devised machinery so perfect and yet so simple. 

 With this it constructs its own roads, manufactures its dwell- 

 ings, weaves its own nets, and snares, and ropes to bind its 

 prey when captured, and all with a spinning jenny so small 

 that it is impossible to see it with the naked eye. 



Standing by looms in the cotton mills, I have often witness- 

 ed with astonishment, the precision and perfection of their 

 parts, and how admirably each wheel and segment performed 

 its appointed office, and how the beautiful fabric grew under 

 the skilful hand of the craftsman, and his almost intelligent 

 machine ! But all this falls short of the mechanism and ar- 

 tistic power of the wonderful spider. A slight variation of 

 position renders the loom useless ; but the spider's is a loco- 

 motive loom! Destroy his house to-day and drive him from 

 his possessions, and, lo ! to-morrow he is quietly established in 

 a new dwelling. 



Did he not give the idea of the spinning-jenny to Arkwright, 

 and through him confer the immense benefits on mankind 

 which are realized from this invention ? which has scattered 

 cotton cloth — one of the greatest benefits conferred upon man, 

 — over the whole habitable globe, and at so cheap a rate as to 

 be accessible to all. 



All the principles of valuable powers, by which we overcome 

 the obstacles in our way, are suggested in nature's works. The 

 power used in all modern printing presses is that of the human 

 knee. 



Is there not something to be gained, then, by the farmer, in 

 the study of the inferior creation around him, however minute 

 and insignificant it may appear ? But, if there were nothino- 

 gained in the mechanical powers, or protection to crops, there 

 would still be incalculable benefit in mental discipline, and the 

 moral elevation of the heart. 



The study of natural history, and in this I class entomology, 

 fills the soul with grateful ideas of the minuteness, as well as 

 magnitude of the operations of the Omnipotent Beino- • ex- 

 pands if with sentiments of His benevolence and love, and 



