12 INSECT ARCHITECTURE, 



pie regulates even the increase of particular species 

 of insects themselves. When aphides are so abun- 

 dant that we know not how to escape their ravages, 

 flocks of lady-birds instantly cover our fields and 

 gardens to destroy them. Such considerations as 

 these are thrown out to shew that the subject of 

 insects has a great philosophical importance — and 

 what portion of the works of Nature has not ? 

 The habits of all God's creatures, whether they are 

 noxious, or harmless, or beneficial, are worthy 

 objects of our study. If they affect ourselves, in 

 our health or our possessions, whether for good or 

 for evil, an additional impulse is naturally given to 

 our desire to attam a knowledge of their properties. 

 Such studies form one of the most interesting occu- 

 pations which can engage a rational and inquisitive 

 mind; and, perhaps, none of the employments of 

 human life are more dignified tlian the investigation 

 and survey of the workings and the ways of TSature 

 in the minutest of her productions. 



The exercise of that habit of observation which 

 can alone make a naturahst — " an out-of-door natu- 

 ralist," as Daines Barrington called himselt^ — is well 

 calculated to strengthen even the most practical and 

 merely useful powers of the mind. One of the most 

 valuable mental acquirements is the power of discri- 

 minating among things which differ in many minute 

 points, but whose general similarity of ajipearance 

 usually deceives the common observer into a belief of 

 their identity. Entomology, in this point of view, is a 

 study peculiarly adapted for youth. According to our 

 experience, it is exceedingly difficult for persons 

 arrived at manhood to acquire this power of discri- 

 mination; but in early life, a little care on the part of 

 the parent or teacher will render it comparatively easy. 

 In this study the knowledge of things should go 

 along with that of words. " It' names perish," says 



