THE INSECT’S DEFENCE. 
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definitive decree of a German dreamer, who sums h 
up the whole matter in a word : “ The good God made » 
the world; but the devil made the insect! ” 
The Insect, nevertheless, does not look upon itself 
as vanquished. To the systems of the philosopher 
and the terror of the child (which are, perhaps, both 
the same thing), this is its answer:— 
In the first place, that Justice is universal, that 
size has nothing to do with Right; that if one could 
suppose the Right to be unequal in its application, 
and the Universal Love to incline the balance, it 
would be on the side of the little. 
It says that it would be absurd to judge by the 
figure, to condemn organs of whose uses we are ignor¬ 
ant, which are principally the tools of special profes¬ 
sions, the instruments of a hundred trades; that it, the 
insect, is the great destroyer and fabricator, the most 
industrious of artisans, the energetic workman of life. 
And, finally, it says (this pretension will perhaps 
appear most arrogant), that if we judge by visible 
signs, by works and results, it is It, among all beings, 
which loves most truly. Love endows it with wings, 
with a marvellous iris of colours, and even with visible 
flames. Love is for it the instantaneous or approaching 
death, with an astonishing second sight of maternity 
which continues over the orphan an ingenious super¬ 
intendence. And lastly, the maternal genius extends 
so far, that, surpassing and eclipsing the rare associa¬ 
tions of birds and quadrupeds, it has enabled the Insect to create 
republics and establish cities ! 
