NATURAL THEOLOGY. 337 



feelers that rise from each side of the head : but 

 to what common use or want of the insect kind a 

 provision so universal is subservient has not yet 

 been ascertained ; and it has not been ascer- 

 tained, because it admits not of a clear, or very 

 probable, comparison, with any organs which we 

 possess ourselves, or with the organs of animals 

 which resemble ourselves in their functions and 

 faculties, or with which we are better acquainted 

 than we are with insects. We want a ground of 

 analogy. This difficulty stands in our way as to 

 some particulars in the insect constitution, which 

 we might wish to be acquainted with. Neverthe- 

 less, there are many contrivances in the bodies of 

 insects, neither dubious in their use, nor obscure in 

 their structure, and most properly mechanical. 

 These form parts of our argument. 



I. The elytra, or scaly wings of the genus of 

 scarabseus or beetle, furnish an example of this 

 kind. The true wing of the animal is a light, 



tomologists contend that the antennae are organs of feeUng, obser- 

 ving that many insects are constantly touching surrounding ob- 

 jects with them, such as the bee tribe, ichneumonidae, &c. The 

 argument used against the latter opinion is, that although many 

 insects do undoubtedly touch surrounding objects with their an- 

 tennae, yet many scrupulously avoid so doing, such as the butter- 

 fly and moth tribe, the Lamellicorn beetles, &c. When, however, 

 we are asked the question, what is hearing as distinguished from 

 feeUng, we find it difficult to draw any line. Are they not mere 

 modifications of the same thing? and as the antennae of insects 

 are so exceedingly variable in form, may they not be used as or- 

 gans of touch in some, and of hearing in others ? 



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