76 



STUDY OF THEM BECOMMENDEO. 



have formed a subject for the ingenuity of learned 

 commentators. They have demanded the notice of 

 the historian, and the inqmry of the antiquarian : and 

 their various instinctive actions have supplied a theme 

 for the admiration of the naturalist. If, in the pre- 

 sent imperfect state of our knowledge, and with our 

 attention directed to only one of their most obvious 

 external characteristics, they have been found thus 

 interesting, what deUght should we not feel if we 

 could follow the complexity of their internal organiza- 

 tion, and develope the laws, on which their produc- 

 tion, their growth, and their preservation, essentially 

 depend ! 



