THE SILK-WORM. 141 



and that their sting is inevitably fatal. In Europe their size does 

 not exceed two or three inches, and those who are stung gene- 

 rally recover. 



The malevolent disposition of the scorpion has been proved 

 by a number of experiments, which show that no animal in cre- 

 ation is endued with so irascible a nature. Its fierceness is 

 dangerous not only to all other creatures that approach it, but 

 also to its own species ; for scorpions are the most cruel ene- 

 mies to one another, which is a happy means of preventing the 

 too great increase of their numbers, as whenever two of them 

 meet, a combat immediately commences, and they never cease 

 fighting till one of them be destroyed. Maupertius put a hun- 

 dred of them together in a vessel, and the^y scarcely came into 

 contact before they began to exert their rage in mutual destruc- 

 tion. Nothing was to be seen but universal carnage ; and in 

 a few days there remained only fourteen, which had killed and 

 devoured all the rest. He also enclosed in a glass vessel a fe- 

 male scorpion big with young, and she was observed to devour 

 them as soon as they were brought forth : only one of the num- 

 ber escaped the general destruction by taking refuge on the back 

 of the old one ; and this parricidal offspring of an unnatural 

 mother soon avenged the cause of its brethren by killing its cruel 

 parent. These observations demonstrate the propriety of the 

 scriptural metaphors, which exhibit the scorpion as the lively 

 emblem of finished malignity. 



THE SILK-WORM 



Is as beneficial as the scorpion is noxious, and produces an ar- 

 ticle of ornament and commerce universally known and admired. 

 This insect is of the caterpillar genus, of a whitish colour, with 

 twelve feet, and at last produces a butterfly of the moth kind. 

 It is a native of China and the easternmost parts of Asia, and 

 has been gradually introduced into various parts of the world. 

 Silk was anciently brought in small quantities to Rome; but it 

 was so scarce as to be sold there for its weight in gold. 



There is given, in the " Letters on Ancient and Modern His- 

 tory,"" a succinct account of the silk trade carried on between 

 ancient Rome and the oriental countries of Asia, and of the in- 

 troduction of the silk-worm into the Roman empire ; which it 

 is therefore unnecessary here to repeat. Since that event, 

 which forms an important era in the history of commerce, this 

 valuable insect has been diffused throughout all the warm coun- 

 tries of Asia and Europe. In China, Tonquin, and other hot coun- 

 tries, they are left at liberty on the trees where they are hatched ; 

 but to breed them in Europe, they must be sheltered from the 

 inclemency of the weather, and carefully protected from every 



