Lungs have likewife been denied to infects. But, as refpiration is neceffary to every creature, and as it is carried on by means of lungs, which are found in all the other animals, we cannot doubt but infects have them likewife. They are not of the fame fize, nor the same ftructure in all creatures; and those of infects are larger, in proportion, than thofe of other animals. This organ is formed in all, of little veficles, connected with one another. The air enters by the trachea, and goes out at the fame place. Infects likewife have a trachea, which terminates in their lungs, but it is not of the fame ftructure with that in other animals.. In these last, it is formed of many cartilaginous rings; in infects it is nothing but Ikin, which can be dilated or contracted with ease. The lungs of other animals have branches, which, from the vena cava, difperfe themfelves through the fubftance of the lungs, in many fmaller branches. Infects have the fame, and by means of these, the air is diftributed to all their members:

In most infects, the inteftines are a little different from thofe in the other animals. The minuteness of their bodies will not admit of fo great a number. Accordingly, in many we find nothing but a tube, extending from the mouth to the vent, as may be seen in fuch as are transparent. It would appear, however, that, with refpect to the great gut, it is not in all of the fame figure, for the excrements of fome caterpillars are round, or cylindrical, and thofe of others have five furrows. This could not happen but from the structure of the rectum, which is the mould that gives the fæces their figure.

Round this long tube, are many flender fibres, which answer the purpose of veins and windpipe.

Bees have, towards the extremity of the abdomen Y

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a refervoir, which other infects have not. In this they depofite the honey which they have collected from flowers.

In the laft place, it is to be remarked, that the females have an ovarium. This organ feems formed of a mass of fibres, which undoubtedly are veins.

What I have now obferved, with regard both to the external and internal parts of infects, proclaims, in the most explicit manner, the wisdom, and infinite power of the Creator. When we aflift at the dif fection of any of the larger animals, with what admiration does not the fight affect us! the different members, their figure, the muscles, the arteries, the veins, the lungs, the nerves, the bowels, every thing furprises and aftonifhes, for every where we difcover the great and the wonderful; but the bulk of thefe animals is fufficient to contain fuch a variety of parts, and we are not furprised that they fhould find rooms there. What then ought to be our surprise, when, in diffecting the minuter insects, fuch as we are able to diflect, we discover the fame members, the fame parts as in the moft enormous quadruped! What difplay of greatness, of wisdom, and power, in fuch a heap of parts, all equally perfect, and comprised in fo fmall a fpace! Should the most skilful artificer attempt to work on the fame defign, he might perhaps imitate the external parts of the larger infects; but how would he fail, in forming the fmall internal organs ! ! Could he give his machine the power of fpontaneous motion! Could he communicate to it the power of propagating its like? All this is beyond the power of the moft able workman, and can be performed, only by that infinite wisdom and power, which is the attribute of the Creator alone, the firft and fole cause of all existences.

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We fhall be the more convinced of this truth, if we abserve the wonderful order and arrangement of so many parts. In the animals, different from infects, the head, the eyes, the forehead, the mouth, the teeth, the tongue, the breaft, the belly, the feet, &c. have each a particular place affigned them: is it not the fame in infects? A few worms alone are deftitute of breast and feet. But not only are the members fituated in the places moft convenient for them; the fame arrangement is obfervable, in the different parts of which each of these members is compofed. Does not an order fo perfect announce, that the author of it is a being infinitely wife? If this regularity were obfervable only in fome of his creatures, if the pro-, priety of it were donbtful in others, there would be fome appearance of reafon, in fufpecting, that the wifdom of the Creator was not perfe&; but it is univerfal and invariable: it is seen in the difpofition of the members in man and quadrupeds; in the feathers of birds; in the flowers of plants; and in all the parts, both external and internal, of the most loathfome infects.

But the diversity obfervable in all these members, is a circumstance not lefs worthy of admiration.— Though their number is vaft, yet there is not one that resembles another; they all differ, either in figure, in dimenfions, or in fome other character. How boundlefs muft that imagination be, which could form the plan of fo many different parts, and dispose them all in fuch perfect regularity! When we enter a town, in which all the houfes are difpofed in fuch a manner as to form one regular plan, we naturally conclude, that some perfon fuperintended the building of the town, who had judgment to plan it, and power to reftrain the inclination of individuals from building every one according to his fancy. If, notwithstanding the regularity of each particular Edifice.

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ecifice, it should be observed, that they differed very much from one another, we would not fail to conclude, that the architect was poffefied of an inventive genius, capable of imagining many plans, fubordinate and fubfervient to the general defign. But how great is the difference, between the moft perfect arrangement of a town, and that of the members of the fmalleft. infect! How inferior is the genius which can, with a diverfity in the parts, preferve the unity of the whole, only in a fingie thing, to that which can do fo always, and in a multitude of different defigns! The tormer exercifes fancy and tafte only, in the conftruction of a town, the other exerts both, a million of times, in the structure of an infinity of the moft different objects. An artist, who devifes various figures for the embellishment of his work, exercifes his imagination, and difcovers genius; and, if he executes what he has conceived, he then fhews, that he is poffeffed, at the fame time, both of power ad freedom. But how great is the distance between the most perfect imagination of the ableft artificer, in beautifying his performance, and that which the Creator hath difplayed in decorating infects! Surely the deduction from these reflections is clear and natural, that infects have been formed by a Being, supremely free, infinitely wife, and all-powerful.

The diversity which I have remarked in the numbers of infects does not in the leaft prevent them from poffeffing the most perfect harmony and proportion. We fee plainly that the body, the head, the legs, the wings of each fpecies have been made for one another; and destined to form one whole. None of thefe limbs interrupt the motion of another; on the contrary, they co operate together, and thus facilitate the transportation of the whole from place to place. The internal organs are formed in fuch a way as to diftribute the food eafily to every part of

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the body. We find all the veffels neceffary for the fecretion and diftribution of the nutritive juices, and for the excretion of what is fuperfluous, which would otherwise prove hurtful. Can all this be the effect of blind chance? Is it poffible that any thinking being can harbour. fo extravagant a thought? Is it not more agreeable to reason to attribute the caufe of a structure fo wonderful to a being infinitely wife, and infinitely powerful? What other, not abfolutely perfect, could fabricate a machine which difplays so many characters of wisdom and power? What other could have bestowed on each infect that exact quantity and proportion of members that are neceffary to fit it for the manner of life it is destined to? How could chance give feet to those that run and wings to those that fly, and have to feek their food at the top of the highest trees? How does it. happen that chance never mistakes on this head? Wẹ find conftantly, and without exception, that those infects which are obliged to feek their food in diftant places, have the organs of fight and fmell fo keen and delicate as to discover that food afar off; but the fenfibility of these organs would be useless to them without the power of motion: and accordingly they are furnished with wings fit to carry them to a distance. Those which are obliged to creep into openings in the ground, have their bodies adapted to the purpose, by being furnished with an oil which facilitates their paffage: and they have the apparatus proper for opening it, if it fhould be hard. Thofe which live in more folid fubftances, as firm earth, roots, wood, &c. have likewife what is neceffary for their way of life; their skin and wings are fo hard as not to be injured by attrition. We must therefore return to our first conclufion: A Being all powerful and all-wife is the Creator and Preferver of infects. This is the only way in which we can fufficiently account for all these wonderful phænomena, -CHA P. III.