342 OUB JUDGMENT INCOMPETENT. 



achieve ends, that bring them nearer to mankind than any other 

 class of animated nature."* 



"We insect men may not relish, perhaps, or care to observe, 

 this approximation towards ourselves, of men-like insects. 

 We would rather, perhaps, make the most of the inferential 

 argument, that because insects proper have avowedly a very 

 large share of instinct, they have therefore no reason at all. 

 We might as well infer of ourselves, contrary to facts, that 

 because we may have a large share of reason, we are utterly 

 devoid of instinct. 



But apart from all jealous or all careless want of notice of 

 insect ways, and our imperfect appreciation, consequently, of 

 their mental endowments, our means of judging them are, in 

 truth, but slight and superficial. From their minute size, 

 their brevity of existence, and many of their habits, the mem- 

 bers of the insect world are precluded from anything like that 

 reciprocal intercourse with man, which, in the case of the 

 larger animals, tends to throw so much light upon their na- 

 tures, and to develope their qualities of intellect and affection. 

 What has been said of these latterf may therefore be urged 

 with double force in regard to insects. " It ought always to 

 be remembered that brutes have more reason than they can 

 show, from their want of words, from our inattention, and 

 from our ignorance of the import of those symbols which 

 they use in giving intimations to one another and to us." 



* 'Sacred History of the World,' vol. iii. f By Dr. Hartley. 



