HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 517 



high and of a proportionable bulk, covered by a vast 

 dome, adorned without by numerous pinnacles and tur- 

 rets, and sheltering under its ample arch myriads of 

 vaulted apartments of various dimensions, and con- 

 structed of different materials — that they should more- 

 over excavate, in different directions and at different 

 depths, innumerable subterranean roads or tunnels, 

 some twelve or thirteen inches in diameter, or throw 

 an arch of stone over other roads leading from the me- 

 tropolis into the adjoining country to the distance of 

 several hundred feet — that they should project and finish 

 the, for them, vast interior stair-cases or bridges lately 

 described — and, finally, that the millions necessary to 

 execute such Herculean labours, perpetually passing to 

 and fro, should never interrupt or interfere with each 

 other, is a miracle of nature, or rather of the Author of 

 nature, far exceeding the most boasted works and struc- 

 tures of man : for, did these creatures equal him in size, 

 retaining their usual instincts and activity, their build- 

 ings would soar to the astonishing height of more than 

 half a mile, and their tunnels would expand to a mag- 

 nificent cylinder of more than three hundred feet in 

 diameter ; before which the pyramids of Egypt and the 

 aqueducts of Rome would lose all their celebrity, and 

 dwindle into nothings a . So that when in the commence- 



a The most elevated of the pyramids of Egypt is not more than 

 600 feet high, which, setting the average height of man at only five 

 feet, is not more than 120 times the height of the workmen em- 

 ployed. Whereas the nests of the Termites being at least twelve 

 feet high, and the insects themselves not exceeding a quarter of an 



