250 AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 



objection which is sometimes thrown out against regarding with any par- 

 ticular sympathy the affection of the lower animals to their young, on the 

 ground that this feeling is in them the result of corporeal sensation only, 

 and wholly different from that love which human parents feel for their 

 offspring. It is true that the latter involves moral considerations which 

 cannot have place in the brute creation ; but it would puzzle such objectors 

 to explain in what respect the affection which a mother feels for her new- 

 born infant the moment it has seen the light differs from that of an insect 

 for its progeny. The affection of both is purely physical, and in each 

 case springs from sensations interwoven by the Creator in the constitution 

 of his creatures. If the parental love of the former is worthy of our 

 tenderest sympathies, that of the latter cannot be undeserving of some 

 portion of similar feeling. 



I am, &cc. 



