30 



OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 



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 sufier from 

 the flies. The great American fire-fly should be imported 

 into Spain to catch mosquitos. In hot countries a reward 

 should be oflered 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 agriculturists 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 employing 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 I We 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 have totally neglected. Some 

 may think, perhaps, that in aiming to do this we should be 

 guilty of presumption, and of attempting to take the govern- 



1 Southey's M(r?oc, 4to. Notes, 519. 



