BOOK of 
Neel oT UoReE: 
T Hibs 
HISTORY of INSECTS. 
CH A P. 
I. 
The defign and diftribution of the work: - 
F TER an attentive examination of 
the nature and fabrick of the leaft 
and largeft animals, I cannot but al- 
low the lefs an equal, or perhaps 
fuperior degree in dignity. Whoever duly con- 
fiders the condué and inftin& of the one, with 
the manners and ations of the other, muft ac- 
knowledge all are under the direCtion and 
controul of a fupreme and fingular intelligence ; 
which, as in the largeft, it extends beyond the 
limits of our comprehenfion, efcapes our re- 
fearches inthefmalleft. If, while we diffeé& with 
care the larger animals, we are filled with won- 
der at the elegant difpofition of their limbs, 
the inimitable order of their mufcles, and the 
regular direction of their veins, arteries, and 
nerves ; to what an height is our aftonifhment 
raifed, when we difcover all thefe parts arranged 
in the leaft, in the fame regular manner. How is 
it poflible but we muft ftand amazed when we 
reflect that thofe animalcules, * whofe little bo- 
dies are {maller than the fineft point of our 
diflecting knife, have mufcles, veins, arteries, 
_and every other part common to the larger ani- 
mals? Creatures fo very diminutive, that our 
hands are not delicate enough to manage, or 
our eyes fufficiently acute to fee, them; info- 
much that we are almoft excluded from ana- 
tomizing their parts, in order to come at the 
knowledge of their interior conftru€tion. Thus, 
what we know of the fabrick of thofe 
creatures reaches no farther than to a fimple 
enumeration of the parts which we have be- 
_ fore obferved in larger creatures. We are not 
only thus in the dark, in attempting a difco- 
very of the conftruGtion of the leaft animalcules, 
but we even gain very little knowledge of the 
wonderful texture of the vifcera of the largeft 
* We are accuftomed to ufe the word animalcule, to exprefs thofe minute creatures in particular, 
feen by the affiftance of microfcopes ; 
and is its more proper, meaning. 
animals: for as the point of our diffecting 
knife is not minute enough to feparate the 
tender parts of the fmall animals, it is not 
lefs unfit to be ufed in difcovering the extremi-= 
ties of the nerves and veins in the larger. 
As our knowledge of both fpecies of ani- 
mals is fo far limited by our ignorance, and 
as we have not hitherto had fuch a fufficient 
number of experiments as are neceflary to 
form a proper judgment of their elegant ftrirc- 
ture, and the admirable difpofition of their 
parts, we may eafily fee how rath and precipi- 
tate their opinion is, who efteem ‘the larger 
creatures only as perfect, and the lefs as {carce 
worthy to be clafled with animals; but, as 
they fay, produced by chance, or generated 
from putrefaction ; rendering, by {uch rea- 
foning, the conftant order of nature fubjec 
to chance. But as it happens to the {malleft 
of animals, for inftance, to thofe produced 
from the egg of the Acarus which is fo minute, 
as fearcely to be vifible, fo alfo it is with the 
largeft animals ; their origin is not more obvi- 
ous or more vifible, perhaps it is rather more 
obfcure, and they derive their being from a 
lefs vifible beginning. Nor let any man ima- 
gine that I fay this without conviGtion, fince I 
have found by diligent. inquiry that the largeft 
animal is not in its firft formation bigger than 
the rudiment of an Ant; and therefore, unlefs 
the Great Creator had fet certain bounds to the 
growth of every kind, which it cannot ex- 
ceed, I fee no reafon why the Ant might not 
furpafs in bulk the largeft. Perhaps, their fizes 
proceed in proportion to the greater or lef 
ftrength of the heart, by which the parts mut 
be extended, againft the preflure of the at- 
mofphere. Notwithftanding the fmallnefs of 
which are only 
this author applies it to {mall animals in general, which was its original, 
B Ants, 
