IMPOrvTANCE OF INSECTS. 161 



as those that have heen described in relation 

 to the growth of moulds. The injuries we 

 receive from insects are doubtless great; 

 but we have our compensation in the bene- 

 fits they confer upon us. When we look 

 upon some of these separately insignificant 

 portions of creation, their importance seems 

 almost incredible. Who could suppose, on 

 examining a minute cochineal insect, that this 

 nation actually pays about five millions of 

 dollars every year for the myriads of their 

 dried tiny bodies which art has called into use ? 

 How wonderful is it to remember, when 

 we may be sealing a letter, that the little 

 gum-shel-lac insect provides for us wax a 

 an appendage to our writing apparatus, and 

 that very large sums are yearly expended on 

 its importation! When we look at a slug- 

 gish silkworm feeding lazily on some leaf, 

 and consider it merely as the larva of a plain- 

 looking moth, and perceive its feeble move- 

 ments and rather sickly aspect, it fills us with 

 amazement to recollect that more than fifteen 

 hundred thousand human beings gain their daily 

 bread from gathering, winding, and manufac- 

 turing the web of the cocoon of such a cater- 

 pillar! Many other instances might be adduced 



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