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forms and colourings we perceive in feveral kinds 

 of infeds and other animals, as things to delight 

 and pleafe the fenfe of thofe animals, and others 

 of the brute creation : Or whether they were de- 

 figned principally for the delight and contem- 

 plation of man the lord of this lower world, is a 

 queftion. A reafon, in my opinion, why infeds 

 are not fenfible of their own beauty, is the form 

 of their eyes, which let in the light through a 

 kind of net-work, which muft difcover the ob- 

 jects in a confufed manner \ or if we fuppoie 

 each little part a diftin6l eye, they are fo fmall 

 that an objeél muft almoft touch them to be 

 diftindlly perceived in its parts, and the quantity 

 taken in at once fo fmall, that the entire form 

 of one infe6t can hardly appear plain to another 5 

 thefe eyes may indeed ferve them to diftinguifii 

 opake bodies from the clear air they fly in ; and, 

 when they approach very near, to pick out fmall 

 particles lying on leaves and fruits, which fupply 

 moft infedts with food. 



Now, as the eyes of man feem to be more 

 adapted than thofe of infedls to receive the vari- 

 ous forms and colours of natural things, I am 



of 



