8 INTRODUCTION. 



and in the infinite diversity of means exhibited by insects tend- 

 ing to one common end — the preservation of each — the supre- 

 macy and wisdom of a Divine IntelHgence, — creating all 

 things, preserving all things, directing all things, — are so 

 pre-eminently conspicuous, that it is impossible, even whilst 

 paying but the shghtest degree of attention to such things, to 

 overlook the sublimity of the science, or not to be filled with 

 the most profound respect for the all-powerful wisdom and 

 goodness of the Creator, and, even in the midst of the most 

 profound grief, it is impossible to contemplate these wonders 

 of the creation without an assuagement of our pain. 



If, moreover, we would institute a comparison between the 

 objects of our present contemplation, and those of the higher 

 ranks of nature, we shall find here assembled all those strik- 

 ing pecuharities which abound in the latter ; the piercing 

 eye of the lynx and the falcon, the hard shield of the arma- 

 dillo, the splendid tail of the peacock, the imposing horns of 

 the stag, the swiftness of the antelope, the fecundity of the 

 hare, the architectural powers of the beaver, the climbing 

 powers of the squirrel, the gambols of the monkey, the 

 swimming of the frog, the burrowing of the mole, and the 

 leaping of the kangaroo ; all these things are found amongst 

 insects, and often, indeed, in a redoubled degree. The 

 eye of the fly, with its thousands of lenses, the horns of the 

 stag beetle and dynastes, the splendour of the scales upon 

 the diamond beetle, the hard covering of the beetles (whence 

 even their ordinal name, Coleoptera, wings in a case), the 

 admirably constructed works of the hive, the maternal cares 

 of the spider, which guards its bundle of eggs with inces- 

 sant care, carrying them about with it beneath its body; 

 the ingenuity of the cocoon * of the emperor moth, which 



* The cocoon of this moth is of a brown colour, and shaped somewhat 

 like a flask. It is composed of a solid tissue of layers of silk, almost the 

 texture of parchment ; but at the narrow end it is composed of a series 



