SENSATIONS OF INSECTS. 113 



very same moment, be tenanted by devourers of another tribe ; 

 so that family within family may be living beneath the skin 

 of the caterpillar, who, if he be a suHerer, is a very patient 

 one, exhibiting no disposition to pine, or to forego one day 

 of the existence which nature originally destined him to enjoy. 

 But I need say no more on this point. The study of insects 

 formed, we have no reason to doubt, a part of the wisdom of 

 Solomon, without incapacitating him for higher wisdom ; and 

 the pious father of Solomon addresses the Almighty in words 

 of inspired truth, " Thy mercy is over all thy works." 



There is a popular quotation which it is worth while to 

 notice, which brings the authority of Shakspeare to bear on 

 the question in dispute. We are triumphantly reminded that 

 be tells us 



" — die poor beetle that we tread upon, 

 In corporal suffrance finds a pang as great 

 As when a giant dies." 



But not to say that even Shakspeai'e is not an oracle on all 

 points, it is somewhat amusing that his words should, in this 

 case, be entirely wrested from their original purpose. His 

 purpose was to shew how little a man feels in dying ; — that 

 "the sense of death is most in apprehension, not in the act; 

 and that even a beetle, which feels so little, feels as much as a 

 giant does." The less, therefore, the beetle is supposed to 

 feel, the more force we give to the sentiment of Shakspeare. 



I might, before I conclude, advert to the argument we 

 sometimes hear, of the want of Scriptural sanction for killing 

 insects with a view to a collection. This argument must 

 come with a bad grace from those- who allow themselves to 

 kill them, with a view merely to the removal of a personal or 

 domestic annoyance. The exhibition of a large and most beau- 

 tiful department of the creation is surely a higher object than 

 this ; and such an exhibition can be made in no other way than 

 by means of a collection. When all scruples have vanished 

 at the bidding of our own convenience or comfort, it is too 

 late to be fastidious only when God's glory is concerned. 

 Even if it be but for scientific purposes that the collection is 

 made, I know not how a person can consistently reproach the 

 Entomologist, as long as he is conscious that he has not for- 

 bidden his gardener to destroy the slugs that partake of his 

 cabbages, or the blight insects, — the Aphides, — that impair the 



NO. II. VOL. I. Q 



