182 INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



yesulting from selection, of deviating in small matters 

 from a precise rule of action, are often materialists, 

 who shut their eyes to the creating and preserving 

 economy of Providence. But even this belief in the 

 infallible results of organization does not necessarily 

 imply the disbelief of a presiding Povi^er. " The 

 same wisdom," says Bonnet, " which has constructed 

 and arranged with so much art the various organs 

 of animals, and has made them concur towards 

 one determined end, has also provided that the dif- 

 ferent operations which are the natural results of the 

 economy of the animal should concur towards the 

 same end. The creature is directed towards his ob- 

 ject by an invisible hand; he executes with precision, 

 and by one effort, those works which we so much 

 admire; he appears to act as if he reasoned, to 

 retuin to his labour at the proper time, to change 

 his scheme in case of need. But in all this he only 

 obeys the secret influence which drives him on. He 

 is but an instrument which cannot judge of each 

 action, but is wound up by that adorable Intelli- 

 gence, which has traced out for every insect its pro- 

 per labours, as he has traced the orbit of each 

 planet. When, therefore, I see an insect working at 

 the construction of a nest, or a cocoon, I am im- 

 pressed with respect, because it seems to me that I 

 am at a spectacle where the Supreme Artist is hid 

 behind the curtain."* 



There is a small sort of caterpillar which may be 

 found on old walls, feeding upon minute mosses and 

 lichens, the proceedings of which are well worthy of 

 attention. They are similar, in appearance and size, 

 to the caterpillar of the small cabbage-butterfly 

 {Pontia rapoi), and are smooth and bluish. The 

 material which they use in building their cocoons is 



* Contemplation de la Nature, part xv. chap. 38. 



