"when the waves thereof roar; the Lord of hosts « is his name.” ISAIAH LI. 15.

The first impulfe of motion in created beings and its prefervation is not the only thing remarkable on this head; there is another which deferves our most ferious attention. Every thing in nature is in motion. Some of the bodies which compofe the universe, have a constant motion from which they never depart, while that of others is arbitrary and varied. How comes it that fo many different mctions all oppofite to one another, do not derange the economy of the univerfe? The moft fimple and bet conftructed clock-work often goes wrong, and lafts but for a fhort time. But the univerfe has endured for ages without the fmaileft change. And what wide difference is there not between a piece of clock-work, I will not fay the most fimple, out the most complicated, and the machine of the univerfe! From whom flows a regularity fo wonderful? What caufe preferves in fo perfect an equilibrium fo many contrary forces which would feem mutually to counterac and destroy each other? It is God alone, whofe power is unbounded, and whofe wifdom is unfearchable. He prefides over all thofe various motions; he preferves and directs them, and prevents them from interfering to their mutual deftruction,

How many motives do not thefe confiderations furnish us with for adoring and magnifying the Creator! He is the author and preferver of this perpetual and univerfal motion, without which we could not exist. What gratitude does not fuch goodness deferve? Let us reflect with attention on the advantages, and on the infinite pleasures which refult from thofe motions which God hath communicated to animals; let us for this purpose fuppofe that we were totally deprived of them and

we

we fhall then be fenfible of the full value of the bene fit we derive from the hand of the Creator. The free motion of each of our own numbers, is fill more neceffary to us; the lofs we would fuftain of them would be irreparable. What obligations then have we not to God who hath beftowed on us the power of moving them, and who preferves to us that power! In truth, the man muft be very ungrateful and very unworthy of fo great a bleffing, who does not employ fo excellent a faculty to the glory of God by every exertion in his power.

CHAP. XI.

OF THE FOOD OF INSECTS.

THE fubject of the laft Chapter prefented an excellent opportunity of difplaying the infinite power of the Creator; the prefent will open a vast field for reflection on his bounty and wife providence in the care he hath taken to furnish abundance of proper food for infects. All living creatures are under a neceffity of taking nourishment for the prefervation of life. Infects are not excepted from this general rule. It is true that there are many which can live longer without food than other animals; but they cannot exift without it altogether. The reafon why some infects can faft for a long time, perhaps for a month or two, is that their humours being thicker their ani

mal

mal spirits are not fo foon or fo easily dissipated. They all dread the rigour of winter, and to fhelter themselves from it they retire into warm places; there are however but few which lay up provifions to fupply them during that season. The bodies of thofe that do not eat are of a particular contexture, efpecially as to what regards the circulation of the blood and humours. They are fo framed as to lofe nothing by transpiration, and confequently do not require food to repair their wafte. They retire into refting places where they continue in a flate between life and death, till the heat of the fun acquires power to reanimate them, and to give birth to those subftances on which they live. It is neither wind nor rain which makes them feek thofe retreats in which they refide without eating. Thus a ftate of repofe feems as natural to them as reft and fleep to the other animals. Towards the end of Summer, and even before the cold weather fets in, they are seen asfembling in crowds like Swallows, and preparing for their winter repose.

A great diverfity is remarkable in the taftes of infects. What is agreeable to one, difgufts another, and fome eat with avidity, what others will not touch. There are alfo fome which are not always content with the fame food. Like gluttons who devour every thing, these infects fometimes take one fort of food fometimes another. Some too from neceflity will 'eat what they do not relish, and which they do not generally feed on; but then they are fo circumftanced that they must either eat or die. All are not fo accomodating however as thefe; for a great number ufe but one fort of food, and will rather die than tafte another.

What was obferved in the Chapter on the habitations of infects may at once fhew how many things

they

they use as aliment, for they never fail to lodge in places where their food is within their reach. Duft, moift or dry earth, fand, the hardest ftones, and even iron itself, furnish them with provifion.

But plants are their moft common food. Some broufe on the green blade, others gnaw the roots and ftems. Some pierce the wood and feed on its fragments; others are not fatisfied but with the tender buds. Some caterpillars devour the leaves of trees, and herbs, while others attack the very pith of the plant.

They do not, betake themselves folely to thofe plants that are wholefome or of an agreable tafte, but fome infects prefer even fuch as are infipid and venomous. The wormwood, bitter as it is, feeds the caterpillar of the Phalana Abfynthii, and this inftance would be fufficient to refute the opinion of fome authors who have afferted that infects feed only on mild vegetables; but there are other examples. The Spurge, notwithftanding its acrid and noxious qualities, is preyed tipon by the Sphinx Euphorbia and the Phalana

caftrenfis:

Among the infects that eat the leaves, fome touch only the upper for face, others only the under others devour both, leaving nothing of the leaf but its fi bres, the fkeleton of which refembles a fieve. Many are fo delicate that they will be content with nothing but the tender flowers. Others attack only fruits and grain; and are often found in the pods of peas, in pears; apples, plumbs, &c. Corn, bread, cheefe, fugar, and even bocks are preyed upon by different fpecies, and many valuable manufcripts have fallen a facrifice to their voracity. The moth deftroys woolen ftuffs, as is but too well known.

The facred writers often borrow comparifons from this little animal. Job, defcribing the wretched condition he was reduced to says, “that he confumed as

a rotten thing, as a garment that is moth eaten."JOB Xiii. 28. Among the threatnings which God made to the enemies of the faithful, the following is not one of the leaft terrible. "Ye people in whofe “heart is my law, fear ye not the reproach of men, "for the moth fhall eat them up like a garment, and "the worm fhall eat them like wool." ISA. LI. 7,8. "See, (fays Baruch,) the purple which fhines on the "flatues of falle Gods. But it fhalf lofe its luftre "and fade, and they themselves fhall at last be de"youred by worms." CH. vi. 70. "Ye rich, fays St James, weep for the miferies that fhall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your gar66 ments moth-eaten. CH. v. 1,2.

ants.

Infects prey upon one another. The Scolopendra which live in dunghills, feed on a fpecies of fmall worm which alfo lives there. The tree bugs infert their roftrum into the body of a downy caterpillar with yellow fpots which is found on willows towards the end of the season, and fuck its blood. There is a fpecies of exotic ant which lives on spiders, anď these in their turn feed on flies, and fometimes onWe likewife find flies that devour one another, and even the moth of the Silk-worm. The ichneumons kill fpiders, and afterwards carry them to their nefts. One fpecies of Dragon-fly, (the Libellula puella) contributes very much to rid the atmofphere of flies and butterflies. Between it and the common cabbage butterfly a chase commences which refembles that of the hawk and the heron. The draon fly feizes the Papilio in its flight, and holding it firm with his fore legs, devours it entirely. Some beetles feed on the aphides. I have mentioned already the lice that adhere to ferpents and birds. I fall only

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