14, 
own repugnant notions, had he not been too 
much prejudiced in favour of the opinions 
which they were calculated to fupport or ex- 
plain, if the refpe& we owe him will, after 
all, permit us to think he really gave into this 
abfurd notion. Perhaps we may with more 
juftice aflure ourfelves, that he proceeded on 
this occafion, in the manner that people gene- 
rally proceed in confidering things that are dif- 
ficult to be underftood and accounted for; 
that is, by fancying fomething, which feems, 
on mature deliberation, beft to agree with the 
nature of things, as Ariftotle had long fince di- 
rected, in his treating of the generation of 
Bees * ; his words are, ‘“* That the generation 
*‘ of Bees is performed in this manner, feems 
*‘ not only agreeable to reafon, but to what 
** appears to happen in the generation of other in- 
** fects of this kind; however, the obfervations 
“* hitherto made are not fufficient to give us a cer- 
“* tain knowledge of what it isthat really happens. 
‘© When we have acquired that certain know- 
“* ledge, we muft truft our fenfes, rather than 
“* our reafon, by which we are to be guided, 
‘as far only as what it demonftrates, agrees 
“* with what our fenfes afcertain.” Daily ex- 
perience fhews us, how many and how great 
errors this method of philofophifing hath pro- 
duced; fo that an author would do much better 
to own his ignorance ingenuoufly, than to lead 
aftray, by unnatural phantoms, thofe multitudes 
of credulous readers, who, idly thinking. that 
all true learning is to be found in books, never 
give themfelves the trouble of immediately con- 
fulting nature herfelf: perhaps we ought rather 
to pronounce fuch idle followers of knowledge 
well worthy of this punifhment, for. neglect- 
ing the opportunities of finding it in the things 
themfelves with which they are defirous to be 
acquainted. 
Having fhewn in fome meafure on how 
uncertain a foundation Harvey’s account of the 
natural mutations of infects is erected, it re- 
mains to confider with what grofs errors, and 
palpable falfhoods, Goedaert has defiled them: 
but at the fame time we own with fatisfaGion, 
that this author alone obferved and _difcovered, 
in the fpace of a very few years, more fingu- 
larities in the Caterpillar kind, than had been 
done by all the learned men who treated the 
fame fubje& before him. Notwithftanding 
this, we cannot help faying, that not only he 
was not free from miftakes; but that he has 
made fome fuch important ones, as can f{carce- 
ly, if at all, be excufed: not to mention his 
not having had the leaft notion of the true nature 
of the Nymph. But as we have refolved to exa- 
mine on a fucceeding occafion, {eparately, all 
the errors of this author, we ‘hall produce at 
prefent only two of the moft glaring; upon 
which, as upon a frail and flippery foundation 
of ice, all his experiments are built. Nor fhall 
we do this with any other view than that of 
making truth appear the more ftrong and plain, 
by being compared with falfhood ; for the more 
The BOOK oof NATUR E® a, 
naked truth is propofed, the more powerful ié 
is to fubdue errors. 
In the firft place Goedaert is under a very 
great miftake, when he advances, that the Ca- 
terpillar can be changed, before it has reached 
the full term of its growth; adding alfo, 
what is {till more apt to lead people aftray, 
that the mutation effected in this manner is very 
incomplete and unnatural. But let us attend 
to his own words, in the firftt volume of his 
fingular obfervations on the wonderful mutati- 
ons that happen in the Caterpillars, page 12 of thé 
Dutch edition. ‘‘ I have befides obferved,” 
fays he, ‘* that, whenever the Caterpillars effect 
‘‘ a mutation, before they have been fufliciently 
“* fed for that purpofe, and have reached thé 
* fall term of their growth, they never receive 
“*a perfect form in confequence of fuch pre- 
** mature change, but are mifhapen and mifé- 
‘‘ rable, with {hort and fhrivelled wings, like a 
“* piece of fcorched parchment; whereas othef- 
‘* wife, in lefs than half an hour, thefe ufeful 
“parts expand themfelves, and acquire their 
‘* proper beauty, with a variety of elegant co+ 
‘ours. Hence it happens, that the unhappy 
“* infect, not being able to make any ufe of 
“‘ thofe imperfect wings, is much more mit 
“ferable than it was before its change, being 
** obliged to creep upon the ground, where it 
‘at laft perifhes for want of proper nourifh= 
ment.” Afterwards, in his twenty-eighth’ ex- 
periment, it appears, that on the ftrength of the 
foregoing hypothefis, having for feveral days 
fupplied a Caterpillar with food, though all the 
time preparing forits mutation, be breaks out'into 
the following words: ‘* If I omitted giving it 
** food, but for one day,: it immediately fet 
‘about changing; for which reafon I took 
“care not to make it faft any longer, as fo 
“« premature a change was likely to produce but 
‘*an imperfect Butterfly; for it is remarkablé 
‘< of all Caterpillars in general, that as foon as 
‘* they find their food fail, they prepare for.a 
‘‘ mutation; but if it fails of its food before 
*« the term appointed by nature, the infect pro= 
“* duced is both imperfect and tender; fo that 
‘* to have a fucceffion of complete Butterflies, 
“* the Caterpillars muft be provided with’ food, 
“till they refufe it of their own accord, in 
‘order to enter upon the bufinefs of muta- 
‘ tion.”? At length, after having given in the 
eighth experiment on the ftrength of a mere 
conjecture, the example of a noéturnal Batter+ 
fly, which was, in his judgment, the weaker, 
becaufe its Caterpillar had been deprived 
fooner than it ought of its ordinary food; in — 
the fifty-ninth experiment of the firft volume, 
and afterwards in the thirtieth of the fecond,- 
he in a manner opens the fource from which 
he derived all thofe his miftakes; for’ after de- 
{cribing a very miferable animal, that was nei- 
ther a Caterpillar nor a Butterfly, according to 
the idea he had idly formed of it in his own 
fancy, he adds, ‘‘ ‘The reafon of all this is, that 
“© the Caterpillar had entered upon the bufinefs 
* Gen. Anim. Lib. If. C. to. 
of 
