474- EXTERNAL ANATOMY OF INSECTS. 



nations that it admits ! An upper and a lower jaw 

 planted with teeth, or a beak consisting of an upper or 

 a lower mandible with a central tongue, form its princi- 

 pal features. But in the little world of insects, how won- 

 derful and infinite is the diversity which, as you see, in 

 this respect they exhibit ! Consider the number of the 

 organs, the varying forms of each in the different tribes, 

 adjusted for nice variations in their uses : — how gradual, 

 too, the transition from one to another ! how one set 

 of instruments is adapted to prepare the food for deglu- 

 tition by mastication ; another merely to lacerate it, so 

 that its juices can be expressed; a third to lap a fluid 

 aliment ; a fourth to imbibe it by suction — and you will 

 see and acknowledge in all the hand of an almighty and 

 all-bountiful Creator, and glorify his wisdom, power, 

 and goodness, so conspicuously manifested in the struc- 

 ture of the meanest of his creatures. You will see also, 

 that all things are created after a pre-conceived plan ; in 

 which there is a regular and measured transition from 

 one form to another, not only with respect to beings them- 

 selves, but also to their organs — no new organ being pro- 

 duced without a gradual approach to it; so that scarcely 

 any change takes place that is violent and unexpected, 

 and for which the way is not prepared by intermediate 

 gradations. And when you further consider, that every 

 being, with its every organ, is exactly fitted for its func- 

 tions ; and that every being has an office assigned, upon 

 the due execution of which the welfare, in certain re- 

 spects, of this whole system depends, you will clearly 

 perceive that this whole plan, intire in all its parts, must 

 have been coeval with the Creation ; and that all the 

 species,- — subject to those variations only that climate 



