INTRODUCTORY LETTER. 15 



The modern fine lady, who prides herself on the lustre 

 and beauty of the scarlet hangings which adorn the state- 

 ly walls of her drawing-room, or the carpets that cover 

 its floor, fancying that nothing so rich and splendid was 

 ever seen before, and pitying her vulgar ancestors, who 

 were doomed to unsightly white- wash and rushes, is io- 

 norant all the while, that before she or her ancestors 

 were in existence, and even before the boasted Tyrian 

 dye was discovered, a little insect had known how to 

 hang the walls of its cell with tapestry of a scarlet more 

 brilliant than any her rooms can exhibit 3 , and that 

 others daily weave silken carpets, both in tissue and 

 texture infinitely superior to those she so much admires. 

 Other arts have been equally forestalled by these crea- 

 tures. What vast importance is attached to the inven- 

 tion of paper ! For near six thousand years one of our 

 commonest insects has known how to make and apply it 

 to its purposes B ; and even pasteboard, superior in sub- 

 stance and polish to any we can produce, is manufac- 

 tured by another c . We imagine that nothing short of 

 human intellect can be equal to the construction of a 

 diving-bell or an air-pump — yet a spider is in the daily 

 habit of using the one, and, what is more, one exactly 

 similar in principle to ours, but more igeniously con- 

 trived ; by means of which she resides unwetted in the 

 bosom of the water, and procures the necessary supplies 

 of air by a much more simple process than our alterna- 

 ting buckets' 1 — and the caterpillar of a little moth knows 

 how to imitate the other, producing a vacuum, when 



a Megachite Papaveris, Latr. b The common wasp. 



c Polistes nidulans, Latr. d Aranea aquatica, L. 



