162 WISE ADAPTATION. 



to prove that though the insect tribes offer ns 

 much annoyance, and inflict upon us frequent 

 losses, we are still largely their debtors. Like 

 the fungi, also, they have assigned to them a 

 most beneficial part in the grand economy of 

 nature ; and this is the removal of decompos- 

 ing organic matter, and thus preventing dis- 

 ease from putrid exhalation. Every maggot 

 that is bred in the dead body of any animal, 

 or the tissues of any rotten plant, is performing 

 thia needful and beneficial function* For this 

 purpose extensive powers of multiplication and 

 great voracity, are evidently essential requi- 

 sites. Hence we may see the reasons of 

 the changes peculiar to the insect world, and 

 of the. multitude of eggs the various flies 

 which are parents of larvae continually lay. 

 Small numbers could not perform the offices 

 assigned them to any useful extent; nor, if 

 insects passed at once into that state in which 

 they are employed in the cares of reproduction, 

 would they be able to carry on the work of 

 feeding on putrid matter as their sole object. 

 Hence we see the wisdom of God as applied to 

 his designs. The design in this case has been 

 explained, and we may perceive the adaptation. 

 It is expedient that these insects, whose 



