OBJECTS TOR TIIE MICROSCOPE. 
32.0 
Living Objects . — These will be treated of hereafter under the head 
■Animalcula. 
No part of the creation affords such an infinite variety of subjects 
*"°r the microscope as insects. “ Insects,” observe Messrs. Kirby and 
Spence, in their Introductory Tetter to Entomology, “ indeed, appear to 
“ av e been Nature’s favourite productions, in which, to manifest her 
Power and skill, she has combined and concentrated almost all that 
ls either beautiful and graceful, interesting and alluring, or curious 
a “d singular, in every other class and order ot her children. To these, 
b«r valued miniatures, she has given the most delicate touch and 
highest finish of her pencil. Numbers she has armed with glittering 
°>ail, which reflects a lustre like that of burnished metals ; in others 
she lights up the dazzling radiance of polished gems. Some exhibit a 
fade exterior, like stones in their native state ; while others represent 
flieir smooth and shining face after they have been submitted to the 
tool of the polisher: others again, like so many pygmy Atlases bear- 
ing on their backs a microcosm, by the rugged and various elevations 
u nfl depressions of their tuberculated crust, present to the eye of the 
beholder no unapt imitation of the unequal surface of the earth, now 
(torrid with mis-shapen rocks, ridges, and precipices — now swelling 
‘“to hills and mountains — and now sinking into valleys, glens, and 
oaves ; while not a few are covered with branching spines, which 
*®“cy may form into a forest of trees. 
“ What numbers vie with the charming offspring of Flora in various 
beauties ! some in the delicacy and variety of their colours, colours 
“ot like those of flowers evanescent and fugitive, but fixed and do- 
uble, surviving their subject, and adorning it as much after death as 
they did when it was alive; others, again, in the veining and texture 
of their wings; and others in the rich cottony down that clothes them, 
io such perfection, Indeed, has Nature in them carried her mimetic 
ar b that you would declare, upon beholding some insects, that they 
robbed the trees of their leaves to form for themselves artificial 
' ,V| “gs, so exactly do they resemble them in their form, substance, and 
v ascular structure; some representing green leaves, and others those 
f“at are dry and withered. Nay, sometimes this mimicry is so ex- 
fl'usite, that you would mistake the whole insect fora portion of the 
“ranching spiray of a tree. No mean beauty in some plants arises 
from the fluting and punctation of their stems and leaves, and a simi- 
' a >' ornament conspicuously distinguishes numerous insects, which 
als >o imitate with multiform variety, as may particularly be seen in the 
““Jerpillars of many species of the butterfly tribe {Papitknridkj, the 
s P“tcs and prickles which are given as a Noli me tangere armour to sc- 
v “ral vegetable productions. 
“ In fishes the lucid scales of varied hue that cover and defend them 
