LETTER XXXIII. 



EXTERNAL ANATOMY OF INSECTS. 



TERMS, AND THEIR DEFINITION. 



HAVING shown you our little animals in every state, 

 and traced their progress from the egg to the perfect 

 insect, I must next give you some account of their struc- 

 ture and anatomy. And under this head I shall intro- 

 duce you to a microcosm of wonders, in which the hand 

 of an Almighty workman is singularly conspicuous. 

 One would at first think that the giant bulk of the ele- 

 phant, rhinoceros, or hippopotamus, must include a ma- 

 chine far more complicated, a skeleton more multifarious 

 in its composition — covered by muscles infinitely more 

 numerous — instinct with a nervous system infinitely more 

 ramified — with a greater variety of organs and vascular 

 systems in play, than an animal that would scarcely coun- 

 terpoise a ten-millionth portion of it. Yet the reverse of 

 this is the fact ; for the Creator, the more to illustrate 

 his wisdom, power, and skill, has decreed that the mi- 

 nute animals whose history we are recording, shall be 

 much more complex in all the above respects than -these 

 mighty monarchs of the forest and the flood. Of this 

 in the present and subsequent letters you will find re- 



