BOOK III. 



INSECTS. 



To a marvellousdelicacy of organization these animals join 

 a still more marvellons intelligence. The perfection of their 

 tools would lead us to suppose them capable of executing 

 works of boundless variety; it is these that Eennie has 

 designated as tlie architecture of insects. In fact, these 

 minute creatures often rear constructions of an elegance 

 and size which Ave should be far from expecting from them. 

 These, too, are so varied that Rdanmur, and after him the 

 English philosopher just mentioned, grouped the workmen 

 in castes. Indeed, among insects, there are evidently 

 architects, masons, upholsterers, paper-makers, joiners, 

 pasteboard-makers, and hydraulic-engineers. Others dis- 

 like work, and are veritable pirates, always engaged in war 

 and pillage. 



We find also in this class extremes of size and strength. 

 One gigantic beetle, such as for instance the Goliath, may 

 exceed the size of some of the straight-beaked humming- 

 birds, which he would joitilessly strangle in his claws if he 

 caught them in his path; while another insect may be so 

 small, so calculated to escape notice, that Ave only discover 

 it by the aid of the magnifying-glass. 



