OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 19 
which I shall hereafter describe to you, of the leaf-cutter bees, and which 
he conceived to be the effect of witchcraft portending some terrible misfor- 
tune. By the advice of the priest of the parish he even took a journey 
from Rouen to Paris, to show them to his master: but he, happily having 
more sense than the man, carried them to M. Nollet, an eminent naturalist, 
who having seen similar productions was aware of the cause, and opening 
one of the cases, while the gardener stood aghast at his temerity, pointed 
out the grub that it contained, and thus sent him back with a light heart, 
relieved from all his apprehensions.? “. 
Every one has heard of the death-watch, and knows of the superstitious 
notion of the vulgar, that in whatever house its drum is heard one of the 
family will die before the end of the year, These terrors, in particular in- 
stances, where they lay hold of weak minds, especially of sick or hypo- 
chondriacal persons, may cause the event that is supposed to be prognosti- 
cated. A small degree of entomological knowledge would relieve them 
from all their fears, and teach them that this heart-sickening tick is caused 
bya small beetle (Anobium tessellatum) which lives in timber, and is merely 
a call to its companion. Attention to Entomology may therefore be 
rendered very useful in this view, since nothing certainly is more desirable 
than to deliver the human mind from the dominion of superstitious fears 
and false notions, which, having considerable influence on the conduct of 
mankind, are the cause of no small portion of evil. 
But as we cannot well guard against the injuries produced by insects, or 
remove the evil, whether real or arising from misconceptions respecting 
them, which they occasion, unless we have some knowledge of them ; so 
neither without such knowledge can we apply them, when beneficial, to 
our use. Now it is extremely probable that they might be made vastly 
more subservient to our advantage and profit than at present, if we were 
better acquainted with them. It is the remark of an author, who himself 
is no entomologist: ‘We have not taken animals enough into alliance 
with us. The more spiders there were in the stable, the less would the 
horses suffer from the flies. The great American fire-fly should be im- 
ported into Spain to catch mosquitos. In hot countries areward should be 
offered to the man who could discover what insects feed upon fleas.”? It 
would be worth our while to act upon this hint, and a similar one of Dr. 
Darwin. Those insects might be collected and preserved that are known 
to destroy the Aphides and other injurious tribes ; and we should thus be 
enabled to direct their operations to any quarter where they would be 
most serviceable ; but this can never be done till experimental agricul- 
turists and gardeners are conversant with insects, and acquainted with their 
Properties and economy. How is it that the Great Being of beings 
preserves the system which he has created from permanent injury, in con- 
sequence of the too great redundancy of any individual species, but by em- 
ploying one creature to prey upon another, and so overruling and directing 
the instincts of all, that they may operate most where they are most wanted! 
€ cannot better exercise the reasoning powers and faculties with which 
he has endowed us, than by copying his example. We often employ the 
larger animals to destroy each other, but the smaller, especially insects, we 
ave totally neglected. Some may think, perhaps, that in aiming to dé 
1 Reaum. vi. 99,100. Kirby Mon. Ap, Ang. i. 157, 158. 
3 Southey’s Madoc, 4to. Notes, 519. 
rab 
