INFLUENCE ON ANIMAL MIND. 351 



tions of insects are not, then, as has been imagined, wholly 

 selfish, that, however circumscribed their sphere, they yet 

 move in a circle beyond the central point of sensual gratifica- 

 tion or self-preservation, is scarcely, we think, a matter to be 

 doubted ; but how far the mental principles of these little 

 creatures, like those of the larger animals, can communicate 

 with, or may in any degree be susceptible of, influences from 

 the "master mind" of man, is a question which most people 

 would deride rather than attempt to answer or consider. 



And yet, perhaps its absurdity may only lie on the surface. 

 Let us only interpret literally the scriptural assertion, that 

 "every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of 

 things in the sea is tamed and hath been tamed of mankind,"* 

 and we shall have no reason to think but that insects, endowed 

 as we have seen with an intelligence exactly resembling that 

 of other animals, should be (as far as regards their mental 

 constitution) equally susceptible of our influence. 



This may only have failed to be apparent from their minute 

 size, which not only causes us to look so contemptuously down 

 on them, but which, from the seemingly confined sphere of 

 their senses' exercise, seems to prevent them from looking up 

 to us objects, in our comparative bulk, raised apparently quite 

 beyond their perception and cognizance ; while the usually brief 

 space of their allotted existence opposes another obstacle to 

 anything resembling what we may call our educational influence. 



* Epist. of St. James, ch. iii. v. 7. 



