INSECTS IN GENERAL. 



439 



the bee, the whole appears like necessity or 

 compulsion. 



It' insects be considered as bearing a rela- 

 tion to man, and as assisting him in the plea- 

 sures or necessities of life, they will, even in 

 this respect, sink in the comparison with the 

 larger tribes of nature. It is true that the bee, 

 the silk-worm, the cochineal fly, and the can- 

 tharides, render him signal services ; but how 

 many others of this class are either noxious or 

 totally unserviceable to him ? Even in a coun- 

 try like ours, where all the noxious animals 

 have been reduced by repeated assiduity, the 

 insect tribes still maintain their ground, and 

 are but too often unwelcome intruders upon the 

 fruits of human industry. But in more un- 

 cultivated regions, their annoyance and devas- 

 tations are terrible. What an uncomfortable 

 life must the natives lead in Lapland, and some 

 parts of America, where, if a candle be lighted, 

 the insects swarm in such abundance, as in- 

 stantly to extinguish it with their numbers ; 

 where the inhabitants are obliged to smear their 

 bodies and faces with tar, or some other com- 

 position, to protect them from the puncture of 

 their minute enemies ; where, though millions 

 are destroyed, famished millions are still seen 

 to succeed, and to make the torture endless ! 



Their amazing number is also an argument 

 of their imperfection. It is a rule that obtains 

 through all nature, that the nobler animals are 

 slowly produced, and that nature acts with a 

 kind of dignified economy ; but the meaner 

 births are lavished in profusion, and thousands 

 are brought forth merely to supply the neces- 

 sities of the more favourite objects of creation. 

 Of all other productions in nature, insects are 

 the most numerous. Vegetables that cover 

 the surface of the earth, bear no proportion to 

 their multitudes ; and though, at tirst sight, 

 herbs of the field seem to be the parts of orga- 

 nized nature produced in the greatest abun- 

 dance ; yet, upon minuter inspection, we shall 

 iind every plant supporting a number of 

 scarcely perceptible creatures, that fill up the 

 various stages of youth, vigour, and age, in 

 the compass of a few days' existence. 



All other animals are capable of some de- 

 gree of education ; their instincts may be sup- 

 pressed or altered : the dog may be taught to 

 fetch and carry ; the bird to whistle a tune ; 

 and the serpent to dance : but the insect has 

 but one invariable method of operating ; no 

 arts can turn it from its instincts ; and, indeed, 

 its life is too short for instruction, as a single 

 season often terminates its existence. 



For these reasons, the insect tribe are deser- 

 vedly placed in the lowest rank of animated 

 nature; and, in general, they seem more allied 

 to the vegetables on which they feed, than to 

 the nobler classes above them. Many of them 

 are attached to one vegetable, often to a sin- 



gle leaf ; there they increase with the flourish- 

 ing plant, and die as it decays ; a few days 

 fill up the measure of their contemptible lives ; 

 while the ends for which they-were produced, 

 or the pleasures they enjoyed, to us at least, 

 are utterly unknown. 



Yet while I am thus fixing the rank of a 

 certain class of animals, it seems necessary to 

 define the nature of those animals which are 

 thus degraded. Definitions in general pro- 

 duce little knowledge ; but here, where the 

 shades of nature are so intimately blended, 

 some discrimination is necessary to prevent 

 confusion. The smallness of the animal, for 

 instance, does not constitute an insect ; for 

 then, many of the lizard kind, which are not 

 above two inches long, would come under this 

 denomination ; and if the smaller lizards, why 

 not the crocodile ? which would be a terrible 

 insect indeed ! In the same manner, small- 

 ness, with a slow creeping motion, does not 

 constitute an insect; for, though snails might 

 be called insects, with the same propriety the 

 whole tribe of sea shell-fish would then have 

 equal pretensions ; and a very troublesome in- 

 novation would be brought info our language, 

 which is already formed. Excluding such 

 animals, therefore, from the insect tribe, we 

 may define insects to be little animals without 

 red blood, bones, or cartilages, furnished with a 

 trunk, or else a mouth, opening lengthwise, with 

 eyes which they are incapable of covering, and 

 with lungs which have their opening on the sides. 

 This definition comprehends the whole class of 

 insects, whether with or without wings ; whe- 

 ther in their caterpillar or butterfly state ; 

 whether produced in the ordinary method of 

 generation between male and female, or from 

 an animal that is itself both male and female, 

 or from the same animal cut into several parts, 

 and each part producing a perfect animal. 



From hence it appears, that in this class of 

 animals there are numerous distinctions, and 

 that a general description will by no means 

 serve for all. Almost every species has its 

 own distinct history ; and exhibits manners, 

 appetites, and modes of propagation, peculiarly 

 its own. In the larger ranks of existence, two 

 animals that nearly resemble each other iti 

 form, will be found to have a similar history ; 

 but here insects almost entirely alike will be 

 often found perfectly dissimilar, as well in 

 their manner of bringing forth and subsisting, 

 as in the changes which they undergo during 

 their short lives. Thus, as this class is proli- 

 fic beyond computation, so are its varieties 

 multiplied beyond the power of description. 

 The attempt to enumerate all the species of a 

 fly or a moth would be very fruitless ; but to 

 give a history of all would be utterly imprac- 

 ticable : so various are the appetites, the mari- 

 ners, and the lives of this humble class of 



