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first established. Vegetables have continued to preferve and multiply themselves by their feed, and infects by their eggs. Can we doubt then that God included infects in the number of thofe animals to which he gave his benediction after he had created them? The command to encrease, to multiply and replenish the earth, was given to them no lefs than to the other fpecies of living creatures. And if it was given to them, muft they not be fubject to the fame laws, and perpetuate themfelves in the fame manner?

If we attend to the foregoing reasoning we shall be easily perfuaded that infects pofsefs all the parts neceffary for generation; that there is among them different fexes; that they pair, and that they enjoy all the neceffary organs for the formation and prefervation of their ova. To thefe I add another observation, which is, that if Infects were ingendered in the manner contended for by those antient Philofophers, we should every day fee new fpecies. The action of the Sun on plants and putrid fubftances is not fo uniform but it would often vary its products, and it would therefore be aftonishing if we did not every day fee legions of unknown Infects.

But let not these reflections on the origin of infects be regarded with contempt. It is of more importance than at first fight it feems, to be acquainted with the fource of multiplication is thefe little animals. After we are once convinced that they produce themselves by natural means, infeparable from their fpecies, we can declare war against the ancients, we can combat their adherents, and refute thofe ideas which they have promulgated at the expence of the glory of the Creator. If infects arose from putrefaction, fermented by the heat of the Sun, the fame thing might be the cafe with other Animals and even with mankind.

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The one is not more impoffible than the other; nay there would be a neceffity that the thing fhould actually happen in order to preferve uniformity in the economy of nature. The partifans of the fyftem however, cannot bring a single probable fact to fhew that the first man was formed either by a concourfe of atoms, or by the heat of the Sun. How than can they pretend to affign fuch an origin to Infects whofe or gans and ftructure are not lefs admirable than those of the human body? But we have faid enough to convince any reafonable mind that creation is the work of a power different from any thing that falls under the observation of our fenfes. This truth is obvious to the flighteft reflection, to wit, that all animals at present existing have descended by regular generation from those which originally received from the hand of God, their figure, their form, their parts, their life and their faculties.

CHA P. II.

DEFINITION OF AN INSECT.

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In order to give an accurate defeription of infects we ought to be intimately acquainted with them; but we are fo fhort fighted, our intellects are fo limited, that in general we only fee objects by halves. A little knowledge cofts us an infinite deal of labour, and fometimes the fubjects we endeavour to get acquainted with prefent unfurmountable obstacles to our research. This is the cafe with infects, fo that E 2 while

while we confine ourselves to defcribe their external parts, it is but just that allowance fhould be made for our defects.

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There is a strong analogy between infects and plants. The latter originate from a feed which is nothing but a husk in which plants, however large they may be when grown, are found entire: Infects iffue from an egg enveloped in its fhell, which enclofes them in all their proportions. Plants grow daily by the acceffion of alimentary particles; infects are developed, fwell and increafe by means of a nutritive juice. Plants at firft put forth a ftem, and afterwards cloathe themfelves with leaves; infects begin by appearing in the form of a worm, and then acquire wings. The leaves of plants are full of nerves, which divide into a multitude of ramifications; the wings of infects have likewife a vaft number of fimilar nerves. Leaves differ from one another in form, and in the finuations of their margin; wings likewise are varied by their configuration, and by the manner in which their extremities are indented. Plants pufh out flower buds. Infects become Nymphs and Chryfalids. As thofe buds after having flowered give fruit in their maturity; nymphs and chryfalids after a certain time produce perfect infects, Laftly, as fruits contain the feeds proper for perpetuating the fpecies of plant which produces them, infects when arrived at their state of perfection carry alfo within then the feed from which fimilar infects are to be generated.

Notwithstanding this ftriking conformity between plants and infects, the latter must not be ranged in the clafs of vegetables. They are an order of be ings higher in the fcale than plants, and we cannot hefitate in claffing them with animals. One of our chief reafons for placing them in this rank is their

being, capable of voluntary motion, whereas plants are rooted to one spot. They have a power of go, ing in fearch of food at their pleasure; but vegetables can only draw theirs from the fpot on which they are placed.

Let it be attended to in general that God hath fo reftrained the operations of nature that, of the three kingdoms of which it is compofed, none of them can encroach on the rights of another. We never see animals become plants, nor plants degenerate into foffils. All maintain the rank which the Creator hath affigned them without being able to quit it. It is remarkable, however, that the matter of which these three kingdoms are compofed is the fame, and that it differs only in the arrangement which the wifdom of God hath thought proper to give it. The Scriptures do not fuffer us to be ignorant of what that matter is. "The earth was without form and

void, and the fpirit of God moved on the face of "the waters." GEN. 1. 2. Thefe then are the principles of which God compofed the three kingdoms of nature. Of the elements of earth and water, are produced minerals, plants and animals of every kind. Of the combinations which the Creator made of

thefe, we fee grow, "the herb bearing feed, the fruit trees bearing fruit after their kind; the moving creature, that hath life, and fowl that fly above the earth in the open firmament of Heaven, "and every living creature that moveth." We may go farther, and fay that all things originate from water, fince the facred writers have affured us that the earth was compofed of it, by the power of the Creator." He commanded the waters under the Hea66 vens to be gathered together unto one place, and the

dry land to appear; and it was fo, and God called "the dry land earth." The earth, fays St Peter, rofe out of the water, and it fubfifts in the water

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"by the word of God." The confequence to be drawn from this is, that the fubjects of the three kingdoms of nature differ from one another only accidentally. Indeed it may be faid that minerals are only fixed vegetables; that vegetables are volatile minerals and fixed animals; laftly that animals are volatile vegetables that can tranfport themfelves from one place to another according as they have occafion. The whole of these bodies fuffer continual changes; vegetables ferve for food to animals, and are converted by digestion into the fubftance of the animal which they nourifh. This animal dies and returns to the kingdom of fofsils fince it is changed into earth, and then rifes again in the form of a vegetable. Minerals likewife ferve for the food of plants. Vapours exhale from the bofom of the earth, which infinuating themfelves through the roots of vegetables, contribute to their growth; and in this way minerals become plants.

These continual transformations evidently fhew that the matter of which the three kingdoms are com pofed is the fame. But this is ftill more fenfibly perceived in the diffolution of thefe bodies. Every thing that exifts is compofed of the fame matter into which if refolves itfelf; this is a principle that is not contefted. What we find then in the diffolution of bodies ought to pass for the matter of which they are compofed. Now according to this idea we shall find that plants and animals are formed of water and of earth; for, in the diffolution which takes place daily in these bodies, they at firft refolve themselves into water by the corruption of their particles, and when that humidity is evaporated there remains nothing but a mafs of earth. But further we may venture to affirm that it would be impofible by art to dispose minerals to undergo the firft effects of this diffolu

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