336 NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



CHAPTER XIX. 



OF INSECTS. 



We are not writing a system of natural histo- 

 ry ; therefore we have not attended to the classes 

 into which the subjects of that science are distribu- 

 ted. What we had to observe concerning differ- 

 ent species of animals, fell easily, for the most part, 

 within the divisions which the course of our argu- 

 ment led us to adopt. There remain, however, 

 some remarks upon the insect tribe, which could 

 not properly be introduced under any other of 

 these heads ; and which therefore we have col- 

 lected into a-chapter by themselves. 



The structure, and the use of the parts, of 

 insects, are less understood than that of quadru- 

 peds and birds, not only by reason of their mi- 

 nuteness, or the minuteness of their parts, (for that 

 minuteness we can, in some measure, follow w^ith 

 glasses,) but also by reason of the remoteness of 

 their manners and modes of life from those of 

 larger animals. For instance : Insects, under all 

 their varieties of form, are endowed with anten- 

 ncB,''^ which is the name given to those long 



'''' The most scientific entomologists consider the antennae of 

 insects to be organs of hearing ; this is the opinion of those who 

 have minutely examined their structure j whereas very many en- 



