364 NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



natural bodies as we employ in the making of the 

 various instruments by which our purposes are 

 served ? The answers to this question are, first, 

 that it seldom happens that precisely the same 

 purpose, and no other, is pursued in any w^ork 

 which we compare of nature and of art ; secondly, 

 that it still more seldom happens that we can imi- 

 tate nature if we would. Our materials and our 

 workmanship are equally deficient. Springs and 

 wires, and cork and leather, produce a poor sub- 

 stitute for an arm or a hand. In the example 

 w^hich we have selected, I mean a lobster's shell 

 compared with a coat of mail, these difficulties 

 stand less in the way than in almost any other 

 than can be assigned ; and the consequence is, as 

 \\Q have seen, that art gladly borrows from nature 

 her contrivance, and imitates it closely. 



But to return to insects. I thnik it is in this 

 class of animals, above all others, especially when 

 we take in the multitude of species which the 

 microscope discovers, that we are struck with 

 what Cicero has called "the insatiable variety of 

 nature." There are said to be six thousand spe- 

 cies of flies ; seven hundred and sixty butterflies ; 

 each different from all the rest (St. Pierre.)"" 



"^' There are collections of insects in this country which, in all 

 probability, contain forty thousand species. The number of spe- 

 cies in existence may fairly be reckoned at sixty or eighty thou- 

 sand. Mr. Stephens, in his catalogue of British insects, enume- 



