12 



INTEODUCTORY LETTER. 



that of Sir M. I. Brunell under the Thames. ^ The modern 

 fine lady, who prides herself on the lustre and beauty of the 

 scarlet hangings which adorn the stately walls of her drawing- 

 room, or the carpets that cover its floor, fancying that nothing 

 so rich and splendid was ever seen before, and pitying her 

 vulgar ancestors, who were doomed to unsightly w^hite-wash 

 and rushes, is ignorant all the while, that before she or her 

 ancestors were in existence, and even before the boasted 

 Tyrian dye was discovered, a little insect had known how to 

 hang the walls of its cell with tapestry of a scarlet more 

 brilliant than any her rooms can exhibit^, and that others 

 daily weave silken carpets, both in tissue and texture in- 

 finitely superior to those she so much admires. No female 

 ornament is more prized and costly than lace, the invention 

 and fabrication of which seems the exclusive claim of the 

 softer sex. But even here they have been anticipated by 

 these little industrious creatures, who often defend their help- 

 less chrysalis by a most singular covering, and as beautiful 

 as singular, of lace. ^ Other arts have been equally fore- 

 stalled by these creatures. What vast importance is attached 

 to the invention of paper I For nearly six thousand years 

 one of our commonest insects has known how to make and 

 apply it to its purposes'^; and even pasteboard, superior in 

 substance and polish to any we can produce, is manufactured 

 by another. ^ We imagine that nothing short of human in- 

 tellect can be equal to the construction of a diving-bell or an 

 air-pump — yet a spider is in the daily habit of using the 

 one, and, what is more, one exactly similar in principle to 

 ours, but more ingeniously contrived; by means of which 

 she resides unwetted in the bosom of the water, and procures 

 the necessary supplies of air by a much more simple process 

 than our alternating buckets^ — and the caterpillar of a little 

 moth knows how to imitate the other, producing a vacuum, 

 wlien necessary for its purposes, without any piston beside it s 



1 The white ants, 2 Megachile Papaveris. 



3 The late ingenious Mr. Paul, of Harlston in Norfolk, under the bark of a 

 tree discovered a considerable portion of a fabric of this kind, which from its 

 amplitude must have been destined for some other purpose. 



4 The common wasp. ^ Chartergus niduJans. 

 6 Argyroneta aquatica. 



