OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 55 



not easily come. Thus did this judicious observer dispel the ignorant 

 fears and terror which a natural phenomenon had caused.^ 



The same author relates an instance of the gardener of a gentleman 

 being thrown into a horrible fright by digging up some of the curious 

 cases, which I shall hereafter describe to you, of the leaf-cutter bees, and 

 which he conceived to be the effect of witchcraft portending some terrible 

 misfortune. By the advice of the priest of the parish he even took a 

 journey from Rouen to Paris, to show them to his master: but he, hap- 

 pily having more sense than the man, carried them to M. Nollet, an 

 eminent naturalist, who having seen similar productions was aware of the 

 cause, and opening one of the cases, while the gardener stood aghast at 

 his temerity, pointed out the grub that it contained, and thus sent him back 

 with a light heart, relieved from all his apprehensions.^ 



Every one has heard of the death-watch, and knows of the superstitious 

 notion of the vulgar, that in whatever house its drum is heard one of the 

 family will die before the end of the year. These terrors, in particular 

 instances, where they lay hold of weak minds, especially of sick or hypo- 

 chondriacal persons, may cause the event that is supposed to be prognos- 

 ticated. A small degree of entomological knowledge would relieve them 

 from all their fears, and teach them that this heart-sickening tick is caused 

 by a small beetle (^Anobium tessellatum) which lives in timber, and is 

 merely a call to its companion. Attention to Entomology may there- 

 fore be rendered very useful in this view, since nothing certainly is more 

 desirable than to deliver the human mind from the dominion of supersti- 

 tious fears, and false notions, which having considerable influence on the 

 conduct of mankind are the cause of no small portion of evil. 



But as we cannot well guard against the injuries produced by insects, 

 or remove the evil, whether real or arising from misconceptions respecting 

 them, which they occasion, unless we have some knowledge of them ; so 

 neither without such knowledge can we apply them, when beneficial, to 

 our use. Now it is extremely probable that they might be made vastly 

 more subservient to our advantage and profit than at present, if we were 

 better acquainted with them. It is the remark of an author, who himself 

 is no entomologist : " We have not taken animals enough into alliance 

 with us. The more spiders there were in the stable, the less would the 

 horses suffer from the flies. The great American fire-fly should be 

 imported into Spain to catch mosquitos. In hot countries a reward should 

 be offered to the man who could discover what insects feed upon fleas."*' 

 It would be worth our while to act upon this hint, and a similar one of 

 Dr. Darwin. Those insects might be collected and preserved that are 

 known to destroy the Aphides and other injurious tribes ; and we should 

 thus be enabled to direct their operations to any quarter where they would 

 be most serviceable ; but this can never be done till experimental agricul- 

 turists and gardeners are conversant with insects, and acquainted with their 

 properties and economy. How is it that the Great Being of beings 

 preserves the system which he has created from permanent injury, in con- 

 sequence of the too great redundancy of any individual species, but by 

 employing one creature to prey upon another, and so overruling and 



> Reaum. i. 667. « Reanm. vi. 99, 100, Kirby Mon. Ap. Ang. i. 157, 158. 



3 Soulhey's Madoc, 4to, Notes, 519. 



