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add here, that some spiders eat the eggs of thefe laft, and others devour their young.

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It is well known that the flefh of dead animals. ferves for food to many infects, and that even human flesh is not fecure from their attacks. It was this confideration which made Job fay, that man is crushed fooner than the moth.' CHAP. iv. 19. and in another place, "The grave is mine houfe; I have made my bed in the darkness. I have faid to corrup "tion thou art my father, and to the worm, thou

art my mother and my fifter." CH. xvii. 13. 14. The fame lot awaits us all. "One dieth in his full "ftrength, being wholly at cafe and quiet. His "breafts are full of milk and his bones moistened "with marrow; another dieth in the bitterness of "his foul, and never eateth with pleasure, but they "lie down alike in the duft, and the worms cover

them." Joв xxi. 23,26. "Shall duft, fays the "fon of Sirach be proud? He who is a king to "day, shall be dead to morrow, and when a man dies. "he becomes the property of ferpents, of beafts, and "worms." ECCL. X. 12,13.

There are certain infects which have no other nourifhment than the fluids which they fuck. For this purpose nature hath furnished them with a kind of fiphon through which they pump up the liquor that fuftains them. Some content themfelves with pure water; but others whofe tafte is more refined will put up with nothing but wine. Some are fatisfied with the juices of the leaves of all fort of plants, while others of a fanguinary difpofition live folely on blood, and therefore attack both man and Beafts. Some eat as well as drink, as do all the tribe of grafshoppers,

As infects cannot accommodate themfelves to every fort of aliment, they could not have existed had not N 2

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their Creator provided them with the fagacity neceffary to enable them to procure for themselves that particular food which is fit for them. And indeed nothing can be added to the exquifite workmanship of those organs with which they are endowed for this purpose, or to the inftinct which leads them to their prey. They find it as certainly as a lamb finds its mother, a hound the tract of the animal it purfues, or a calf the dug of the cow which gives it fuck. The eyes of fome are fo conftructed that they can difcover their food on all fides, and even at a distance. Others have the fenfe of fmelling fo perfect, that it guides them to their food though confiderably remote, Some which live in water adhere to folid bodies, and are able by agitating the fluid around them to bring the bodies that float in it within their reach.

The time they confume in feeding, differs in feafon and duration. Some eat only during the day, and repofe at night, others purfue a quite contrary conduct. The Phalænæ for example continue at reft during the day, in fome obfcure place, because they are made aloft blind by excefs of light; but on the approach of evening, they fly in fearch of food. By this a double purpofe is ferved. First, they do not commit fuch ravages as they would do, were they to feed. both day and night; and fecondly, those which fly by night are not expofed to the voracity of other infects which appear only in the day.

I must not omit the various artifices employed by infects in feizing their prey. Like other animals they have received from their Creator that fagacity and addrefs which their way of life requires. Some like the Lion pifmire, (Myrmeleon Formicarum) having concealed themfelves, watch for their prey like a lion in his den, till finding it within their reach, they fpring upon it with amazing velocity. Some continue moticnless

tionlefs as if they were dead; and when the animal approaches they are lying in wait for, they feize him when he least suspects danger. Some encompass him with a web that he may not escape, while others grafp him fo firmly with their feet, that he can not difengage himself.

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The manner in which fome kill the animal they have had the address to take, is not lefs worthy of our curi, ofity. They practice as many ftratagems as a man would make ufe of, to kill a dangerous beast of prey.

Thofe infects which have occafion for food during winter are endowed with a particular instinct. We fee them laying up their ftores, In the course of the proper feafon they carry thefe ftores to a convenient place and fecure them as in a granary. In this clafs bees and ants are to be ranked. The former make an abundant provifion of honey to fupply them during the rigours of winter. The latter lay up grain and other fubftances of that fort with which their fubterraneous abodes are filled. The industry of the ant: and its labours are fo great, that, the wife Solomon propofed it as the beft example for imitation to the flothful: "Go to the ant thou Sluggard, fays he, confider "her ways, and be wife; which having no guide, "oyerfeer or ruler, provideth her meat in the fum"mer, and gathereth her food in the harveft." PROV. CH. vi. 6,7,8; and in another place, "The ants "are a people not ftrong, yet they prepare their "meat in the fummer." CHAP. XXX. 25.

The food neceffary for infects is always in fufficient plenty, to fecure them against famine. The proportion between infects and the fubftances they feed on is fo well preferved that wherever they are numerous, there is also a great quantity of their proper food and in places where that food is wanting,

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there are but few infects. Herbs and plants conftitute the most common aliment not only of infects, but of other animals and of man himfelf. The prodigious confumption of thefe, which takes place annually, would have confiderably encreafed our toil, had much pains been neceffary to cultivate vegetables but Providence, ever wife, has taken fuch care for the fpontaneous growth of many plants that we may fay the tables of herbivorous creatures are always abundantly fupplied. But as the rigours of winter destroy the verdure of the fields, which only revives when the heat of the Sun begins to cherish the earth, Infects fleep when their food is withdrawn. Besides, they do not iffue from their eggs or their cones, till their deftined food is prepared. And as in a mild feason their strength is exhausted and they are awakened by perfpiration, they would foon perish were they prevented by famine 'from repairing the wafte they undergo. But the abundance of their food fupplies their lofs of ftrength; every day furnishes enough to maintain them in life and vigour, and they convert into their own fubftance the nourifhment they take in. They bruife and render it fluid; it is afterwards digefted and fubtilized that it may pafs through fuch a multitude of minute veffels, fill their limbs, and communicate to them new ftrength. Indeed fome of these animals are content with very little nourishment.

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The organs with which God has endowed infects for taking in their aliment deferve our attention. Thofe that eat have claws for feizing their food, and teeth for gnawing and comminuting it. In fome thefe are fo fharp and fo ftrong that they eafily break to pieces the hardest fubftances. Thofe which live only on the fluids which they fuck, have received from the author of their being a fort of pump, longer or fhorter according to their neceffities, for the pur. pofe

pofe of extracting the fluids they have occacion for. Some are very temperate, and do but little mischief; the caterpillar of the Phalana quercifolia, though four inches in length, and more than half an inch thick, eats nothing during the day, and in the courfe of a whole night, does not confume more than two leaves of the pear or plumb tree. Others are real epicures which feem born to be gluttons. Some of thefe eat fo voraciously, that they feem to be in dread left their food be taken away from them. Those that drink generally touch the liquor with the extremity of their antennæ; which feems to be their method of trying whether it is fit for them. Some for this purpose use the extremity of their roftrum, and fip the liquor, drop by drop; others drink by means of the fyphon I have already mentioned. Some alfo are real drunkards, and are obliged to difgorge what they are not able to contain: fome likewife die when they cannot find the liquor they relish.

The facts contained in this Chapter demonftrate the great and incomprehenfible wifdom of the Crea

It is certain that infects are devoid of reafon; yet their whole economy feems to be the refult of found judgement. We may fay that they foresee the future, fince they make provifion against its wants. What would become of them when winter has deftroyed all the fubftances that furnished them with food during the fummer, were they not wife enough to lay up a store for their maintenance in that fevere feafon? When there is no verdure on the fields, when every tree and plant are fript of their leaves, and no fruit is left to fupply their neceffities, are they destined to perifh with hunger and famine? By no means. Providence has taken care to fupply them. Those who live only on vegetables, are fo formed as to dif pense with food altogether at that feafon. Others are led by instinct to hoard up, in the fummer, the food

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