Microscopical Essays, 



CHAP, V. 



Of Insects in general. 



NATURAL hiftory has been more cultivated in the pre- 

 fent century than in all thofe which have preceded it. 

 Many men, of the firft rank in literature, have not difdained to 

 become labourers in the vaft field which this fcience offers every 

 day to the eyes of an accurate and attentive obferver. The 

 animal, the vegetable, and the mineral kingdoms, have been 

 examined with the greateft care ; and that confufion and per- 

 plexity, which, from a view of the immenfe variety of indivi- 

 duals which each kingdom contained, it feemed natural to 

 apprehend, has been removed, by introducing fyftematic order 

 into this branch of fcience ; by which means the various indivi- 

 duals have been diftributed into dalles and genera, and we are 

 now enabled to form diftinct and accurate ideas of them. To 

 the fame fyftematic plan, and the nicety of difcrimi nation which 

 arifes from it, we are indebted for the difcovery and defcriptioa 

 of many new fpecies in each kingdom.. 



Amidfl the numerous objects which crowd in upon the natural 

 hiftorian, and engage his attention, infects have not been neg- 

 lected ; and though they are the mod numerous of the animal 

 tribe, and for the moft part very fmall, yet the knowledge of their 



nature 



