SYSTEM OF INSECTS. 401 
With regard to all numerical systems we may observe, 
that since variation is certainly one of the most universal 
laws of nature, we may conclude that different numbers 
prevail in different departments, and that all the num- 
bers above stated as prevalent are often resolvable or re- 
ducible into each other. So that where Physiologists 
appear to differ, or think they differ, they frequently 
really agree. 
Il. The Atmicuty Creator, when he clothed the 
world that he had made with plants, and peopled it with 
animals, besides the manifestation of his own glory, 
appears to have had ¢wo most important purposes in 
view;—the one, to provide a supply for the mutual wants 
of the various living objects he had created, for the 
continuance of the species, and for the maintenance 
of a due proportion, as to numbers, of each kind, so 
that all might subserve to the good of the whole; and 
the other, that by them he might znstruct his creature 
man in such civil, physical, moral and spiritual truths, 
as were calculated to fit him for his station in the visible 
world, and gradually prepare him to become an inhabi- 
tant of that invisible one for which he was destined. 
The first of these purposes was best promoted by crea- 
ting things “according to their kind,” with sexes monoe- 
cious or dicecious ; that groups of beings related to each 
other, and agreeing in their general structure, might dis- 
charge a common function. This we see to be the case 
generally in nature; for where there is an affinity in the 
structure, there is usually an affinity in the function. The 
last,—or the instruction of man in his primeval state of 
integrity and purity,—was best secured by placing before 
VOL. IV. 2D 
