1G INTRODUCTORY LETTER. 



necessary for its purposes, without any piston besides its 

 own body a . If we think with wonder of the populous 

 cities which have employed the united labours of man 

 for many ages to bring them to their full extent, what 

 shall we say to the white ants, which require only a few 

 months to build a metropolis capable of containing an 

 infinitely greater number of inhabitants than even im- 

 perial Nineveh, Babylon, Rome, or Pekin, in all their 

 glory? 



That insects should thus have forestalled us in our 

 inventions, ought to urge us to pay a closer attention to 

 them and their ways than we have hitherto done, since 

 it is not at all improbable that the result would be many 

 useful hints for the improvement of our arts and manu- 

 factures, and perhaps- for some beneficial discoveries. 

 The painter might thus probably be furnished with more 

 brilliant pigments, the dyer with more delicate tints, and 

 the artisan with a new and improved set of tools. In 

 this last respect insects deserve particular notice. All 

 their operations are performed with admirable precision 

 and dexterity ; and though they do not usually vary the 

 mode, yet that mode is always the best that can be con- 

 ceived for attaining the end in view. The instruments 

 also with which they are provided are no less wonderful 

 and various than the operations themselves. They have 

 their saws, and files, and augers, and gimlets, and knives, 

 and lancets, and scissors, and forceps, with many other 

 similar implements ; several of which act in more than 

 one capacity, and with a complex and alternate motion 

 to which we have not yet attained in the use of our 



a Phakena Tinea serratella, L. 



