LETTER IV. 
INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 
DIRECT INJURIES. 
| In the letter which I devoted to the defence of Entomology, I gave you 
| reason to expect, more effectually to obviate the objection drawn from the 
‘ supposed insignificance of insects, that I should enter largely inte the 
| question of their importance to us both as instruments of good and evil. 
This IT shall now attempt; and, as I wish to leave upon your mind a 
| pleasant impression with respect to my favourites, I shall begin with the 
\last of these subjects—the injury which they do to us. 
The Almighty ordains various instruments for the punishment of offend- 
ing nations; sometimes he breaks them to pieces with the iron rod of war ; 
at others the elements are let loose against them; earthquakes and floods 
of fire, at his word, bring sudden destruction upon them; seasons un- 
friendly to vegetation threaten them with famine; the blight and mildew 
realise these threats; and often, the more to manifest and glorify his 
power, he employs means, at first sight, apparently the most insignificant 
and inadequate to effect their ruin; the numerous tribes of insecis are his 
armies’, marshalled by him, and by his irresistible command impelled to 
the work of destruction: where he directs them they lay waste the carth, 
and famine and the pestilence often follow in their train. 
The generality of mankind overlook or disregard these powerful, because 
minute, dispensers of punishment; seldom considering in how many ways 
their welfare is affected by them; but the fact is certain, that should it 
please God to give them a general commission against us, and should he 
excite them to attack, at the same time, our bodies, our clothing, our 
houses, our cattle, and the produce of our fields and gardens, we should 
soon be reduced, in every possible respect, to a state of extreme wretched- 
ness; the prey of the most filthy and disgusting diseases, divested of a 
covering, unsheltered, except by caves and dungeons, from the inclemency 
of the seasons, exposed to all the extremities of want and famine; and in 
the end, as Sir Joseph Banks, speaking on this subject, has well observed 4, 
driven with all the larger animals from the face of the earth. You may 
smile, perhaps, and think this a high-coloured picture, but you will recol- 
lect, [am not stating the mischiefs that insects commonly do, tut what 
they would do, according to all probability, if certain counter-checks re- 
straining them within due limits had not been put in action; and which 
they actually do, as you will see, in particular cases, when those counter- 
checks are diminished or removed. 
Insects may be said, without’ hyperbole, to have established a kind of 
universal empire over the earth and its inhabitants. This is principally 
1 Joel, ii. 25. 
2 On the Blight in Corn, p. 9. 
