OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 27 



fall short of perfection ; and deride and upbraid those 

 who collect, for the purpose of admiring their beauty, 

 the finished and perfect chef-d'ceuvres of a Divine artist ? 

 May we gaze with rapture unblamed upon an Apollo of 

 Belvedere, or Venus de Medicis, Or upon the exquisite 

 paintings of a Raphael or a Titian, and yet when we be- 

 hold with ecstasy sculptures that are produced by the 

 chisel of the Almighty, and the inimitable tints laid on 

 by his pencil, because an insect is the subject, be exposed 

 to jeers and ridicule? 



But there is another reason, which in the present age 

 lenders the study of Natural History an object of im- 

 portance to every well-wisher to the cause of Religion, 

 who is desirous of exerting his faculties in its defence. 

 For as enthusiasm and false religion have endeavoured 

 to maintain their ground by a perversion of the text of 

 scripture, so also the patrons of infidelity and atheism 

 have laboured hard to establish their impiety by a per- 

 version of the text of nature. To refute the first of these 

 adversaries of truth and sound religion, it is necessary 

 to be well acquainted with the isoor-d of God ; to refute 

 the second, requires an intimate knowledge of his works ; 

 and no department can furnish him with more powerful 

 arguments of every kind than the world of insects — every 

 one of which cries out in an audible voice, There is a 

 God — he is Almighty, all-wise, all-good — his watchful 

 providence is ever, and every where, at work for the pre- 

 servation of all things. 



But since mankind in general are too apt to look chiefly 

 at this world, and to regard things as important or other- 

 wise in proportion as they are connected with sublunary 

 interests, and promote our present welfare, I shall pro- 



