OF MATSJDIBULATA. 451 



" Swammerdam a etabli les classes sin- les metamor- 

 phoses des insectes, et M. Bonnet a donne Vebauche d'icne 

 division generate des insectes, fondee egalement sur lews 

 metamorphoses. De tous les plans cle division celui-laparoit 

 assurement la plus naturelle ; car, comme dit M. Lyonnet, 

 La diversite qu'ont les insectes, savoir que les uns changent 

 de forme, et que les autres conservent toujours celle qu'ils 

 ont repue en naissant, cette diversite suppose en eux une dis- 

 position d'organes, une construction inlerieure, un mecha- 

 nisme si different, qu'on pent dire, que rien ne les distingue 

 plus essentiellement les uns des autres." Degeer neverthe- 

 less felt as strongly as Reaumur, a truth which escaped 

 the notice of Swammerdam, that an artificial system ought 

 never to be founded on metamorphosis ; but he had more 

 sublime notions of nature, than to suppose that metamor- 

 phosis must therefore be totally independent of system. 

 That however which is most singular, and which shows that 

 Reaumur's opinion must have arisen from any other cause 

 than an incapability of perceiving natural affinities, is, that 

 he almost invariably adopts metamorphosis for his guide, 

 whenever he pays any regard to arrangement. This is, as 

 if he had said, I do not place much faith in systems, still 

 less in the existence of a natural system ; but if any such 

 should exist, Metamorphosis must be the leading principle 

 upon which insects have been constructed. 



The English naturalist therefore experiences no small 

 satisfaction on reflecting, that Ray # , the expounder of 



* Rarely can England be accused of being taught by foreigners to do 

 justice to the merits of her sons. There are however instances of her in- 

 gratitude in this respect, and no where is it more manifest, than in the case 

 of John Ray. Whether his views were too profound both for the age in 

 which he lived and for that which succeeded him, or whether true science 

 •was forgotten in what the late Dr.-Gordon termed the pleasure of expound- 

 ing riddles, cannot now be determined ; but certain it is, that the services 



2 G 2 



