30S / OF IKSECT3 IN GENERAL. 



Natural hiftory claims it as its prerogative to demon- 

 ftrate the exiftence and the perfeftions of that Creative 

 Power which produced, and whicli governs the univerfe: 

 It is the hiftory of the works of God, and naturally leads 

 every intelligent mind to their Author ; for tliere are no 

 proofs of his exiftence more level to the apprehenfion of 

 all, than thofe which it offers to the underilanding- No 

 rational man can ever bludi for having placed among his 

 occupations a fludy which has for its obje£l the works of 

 the Supreme Being which leads him to the contemplation 

 of their author. All thofe naturalills who have de- 

 fcribed the different parts of the animal kingdom, have 

 •willingly confeffed them to be productions of infinite 

 power and wifdom ; and feem to regret, that the experi-P 

 ments and obfervations relating to their hiftory are not 

 more numerous ; becaufe, in proportion as they are ex- 

 tended, the proofs of a Creative Power are multiplied. 



The manner, however, in which entymology has too 

 frequently been ftudied, and the extremes into which 

 men, according to their different capacities and tafles, 

 have fallen, have brought that obloquy and derifion againli 

 the fcience, which a proper degree of difcernment would 

 have dire£led againfl the foibles of thofe who ftudied it. 

 While the fyftems of fome naturalifls contain only a dry 

 repetition of fhades, colours, and fliapes of different iri- 

 fedls, without entering into the more interefting and ani- 

 mated defcription of their manners, thofe of others, as 

 injudicioufiy, afcribe to them fundlions, and a degree of 

 intelligence of which they are incapable. By the former, 

 the imagination is fatigued and difgufted with a conllant 

 repetition of the fame images : By the romantic air of 

 the latter, the mind is led into dillruft with regard to the 

 truth of the whole narrative, and to dcubt of thofe fads 



which 



