Packard ] RELATIONS OF INSECTS TO MAN. 
67 
the army worm? In the New England states is not the 
face of nature almost transformed by the ravages of the 
canker worm? How life to many would be glorified, and 
this world seem a brighter one, if the flea, the louse and the 
bed-bug were removed from its surface ! 
How much difference would it make to the world of insects 
were fnan to be blotted out of existence? We imagine the 
insects would look with as much indifference upon his re¬ 
moval as we in turn regard the demise of a mosquito. Have 
not, through the ages past, from the time when the first 
grasshopper chirped upon a tree fern’s leaf in the Devonian 
forests of New Brunswick, millions of species of insects had 
their day and died, with no human being to witness them? 
Imagine the eons and eons of measured eternity through 
which by day and night the busy hum of insect life has risen 
and fallen with no human ear to listen. But on the other 
hand blot out those busy servants of ours, the bees ; the myri¬ 
ads of insects that aid in fertilizing our vegetables and fruit 
trees; the silkworm, whose products form so large an item 
in the commercial greatness of the East and of Southern 
Europe; the lac and dye insects; those that produce galls 
for making ink; the myriads of grubs and flies that act as 
scavengers, and purify the air, saving us from pestilence ; all 
working so quietly and effectively that few appreciate how 
much we owe to them—blot out all of these and the world 
would be a poor home for its owner, man. He would be 
forced then, if never before, to appreciate the place of man 
in creation, and would be taught that as an. animal his life 
touches at many points the lives and interests of the humble 
creatures about him. 
We naturally divide insects into friends and foes, but 
our senses are still quite uninstriicted in distinguishing 
them, and few but the trained entomologist can go into 
the field or garden and mark this insect as a true friend, 
and that, so much like the other that ordinary eyes cannot 
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