f 7 ]" 



pleafing to the eye than any other, as 

 appears from the paintings of Clerck 

 and Merian. 



S E C T. III. 



A S infedts furnilli but few of the 

 neceffaries of life, the ignorant and 

 imcivilized part of mankind have not 

 fcrupled to ftigmatize the ingenious 

 enquirers after them with the name 

 of fools, as thefe animals appeared to 

 them altogether contemptible, and de- 

 ferved to be confidered only as punifh- 

 ments innieled on particular countries 

 for the lins of its inhabitants; forgetting 

 in the mean time that the all-wife 

 Creator, who formed them, created no- 

 thing in vain, nothing without its ufe. 

 But as mankind became more enlifffit- 

 en^d 9 the great wonders of nature in 



thefc 



