ous nature will not allow us to become familiar with it. Befides, with what difficulty do we attempt to explore the interior ftructure of their bodies? The inftruments which anatomy has invented for diffection become useless when we prepare to enter into a detail of the minute parts of the greater animals. How then is it poffible to obferve with precifion, the viscera, the veins, the arteries, the fibres, and muscles of creatures fo fmall, and fo delicate as infects? But these difficulties, however great they may appear, ought not to difcourage the Naturalift, nor prevail over the reafons that fhould urge him to profecute his researches. Those I have already mentioned, deserve his attention; thofe I fhall enumerate in the fequel, are not lefs important; and I flatter my. felf, that if, free from prejudice, he will deign to weigh them maturely, he will not condemn my attempt. Far from claffing me with that Emperor who spent his life in catching flies, he will allow that'the study of infects, in which I have engaged, is not unworthy my character as a Clergyman.

It will eafily be imagined that I must have had con.. fiderable assistances to enable me to prosecute this stu. dy, which has for its object, the greatnefs and majefty of the Divine Being. It was neceflary in the first place to confult the facred Scriptures, and in the next, to penetrate into the bofom of Nature, to difcover in that treasure thofe marks of goodness, of wifdom and power which his hand has there fo richly lavifhed. It is true, that in this laft part of my work, I have trode in the steps of many wife and illuftrious men, and I

have been able to take advantage of their difcoverries; but I have not entirely relied upon them. I confidered myself as obliged to ftudy the structure of the bodies of the larger animals; and I defcended to the contemplation of those whofe minutenefs requires the aid of inftruments. The greater progress one makes in this world of wonders, the more grandeur one discovers in it, and the more we are convinced that it is an ocean of which we fee only the fhores. An aftronomer has no doubt great difficulty in furveying the vast extent of the heavenly bodies, but it is not lefs difficult to confider the almoft infinite di. verfity of infects fpread through the air, over the earth and in the waters. If the telescope of an aftronomer allows him to discover a thousand things, wonderful from their bulk, or their revolutions, the microscope enables the observer to difcover in infects as many things marvellous for their minuteness and the changes they undergo..

Many curious men have dedicated their leisure hours to the collection of all the different förts of infects that have come to their knowledge. It must be allowed that fuch collections are of great ufe, they prefent at one view a great many objects of curiofity, unknown to the generality of people, who are inchanted with the fight of fo many rarities collected together, which they often had seen separately, without beftowing on them the fmalleft attention. In this manner one is often enabled to instruct fome, and to fatisfy the curiofity of others. Befides, it is always fafer to confult the originals, than to truft to their reprenta.

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tions, by the pen or pencil. These always exprefs with fidelity, and without difguife, every object as it is formed by Nature; but the latter may easily lead

to error.

Not that I disapprove of the labours of those who have undertaken to delineate objects from life; far from it. I admire a book in the library of the Vatican at Rome, the margins of which are adorned with a great number of figures of infects exceedingly natural and correct. Mr Franck of Ulm in his old age, painted a whole book of excellent figures. When I confider the exquifite nature of the work, which the illuftrious Marie Sibylle Merian has published on the Metamorphofes of Caterpillars, and on the flowers of the plants which furnish their principal food, I cannot enough admire the accuracy with which the delineates thofe infects in their different ftates, and her talent of presenting to the eye, the variety which nature has established in the mixture and diftribution of her colours. She has not confined her labours to the infects of her own country; her zeal carried her to undertake a voyage to the West Indies, which procured for us in 1705, another work on the transformations of the infects of Surinam. Similar reprefentations have not a little contributed to the reputation which J. Hoeffnagel, first painter to the Emperor Rodolph II. has acquired. The edition which was printed by J. N. Viffcher in 1630, containing 326 figures, established his reputation. It was by defigns of infects that the cabinet of Arundel was enriched, and by which

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which the induftrious Winceslas Hollaar, acquired the admiration of the public. J. Johnfton did not think he misemployed his pencil in painting a great number of butterflies, which Monconys says he saw at Basil in the hands of Mr Platern. I have myself feen at Furra, in the house of M. de Wurm, Gentleman of the Bed chamber to his Polish Majefty, fome butterflies painted in miniature by that gentleman on blue paper, with great art and accuracy. Thefe drawings have not only the advantage of recalling the idea of every fort of known infect, but present a sort of abridgement of the works of nature in this particular. On looking at them, we behold at one view the infects of all seasons, and of every country. Befides, they supply the deficiences of the pen in defeription; and they exhibit all the beauty of their origi nals.

To continue to do justice to thofe perfons, whose knowledge has affifted me in the compofition of this work, I ought to mention those authors who have examined the different parts of infects with the microscope. The first that I find, is J. Bononius, who in 1687, published a letter at Florence, in which he enters into a detail of feveral difcoveries equally ufeful and important on this fubject. P. Borrelli, Counsellor and Physician to his moft Chriftian Majefty, alfo turned his attention to the fame fubject, and has made obfervations on about an hundred infects of different fpecies. We owe likewise a great deal to J. F. Griendel of Ach, Canon of the Order of the Holy Ghost, and Engineer to his Imperial Majefty.

jefty. R. Hook has however left this last far behind him, for the patience and accuracy with which he has undertaken and compleated his researches. M. Joblot, Profeffor of Mathematics at Paris, and a Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences, need not regret his valuable labours. He made ufe of a variety of Microfcopes for his obfervations, and he had one among the reft, which magnified objects, five and twenty thoufand times their natural fize. I must not forget N. Hartfoecker, Counsellor to the Elector Palatine, and an able mathematician. He was the first who examined the liquid fubftance in the body of infects; and made use of microscopes for this purpose, fimilar to those made at Paris for obferving fluids. A. Leeuwenhoeck, has acquired deferved fame for his dexterity in observing insects by the microscope, and for the exactness with which he has communicated his obfervations to the Public. J. de Muralte has equally enriched the Republic of Letters, with his remarks on this fubject. I fhall fay nothing of thofe of H. Power, printed at London in 1665. I know not whe ther any thing material concerning infects is to be found in that work. Many authors have confined their observations to a few particular fpecies. Such are F. Redi, who has given us obfervations on the lice of Birds, and other animals; and P. P. Sangallo, who has likewise written on gnats. Some have treated only of one part of an infect; the Abbé Catalan, for example, has obferved the eyes; and Ph. Bonanni, the wings.

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