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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 last place, it is to be remarked, that the females have an ovarium. This organ feems formed of a mafs 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 wifdom, and infinite power of the Creator. When we affift 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 mufcles, the arteries, the veins, the lungs, the nerves, the bowels, every thing furprises and astonishes, for every where we difcover the great and the wonderful; but the bulk of these animals is fufficient, to contain fuch a variety of parts, and we are not surprised that they fhould find room there. What then ought to be our furprise, when, in diffecting the minuter infects, fuch as we are able to, dilect, we difcover the fame members, the fame. parts as in the moft enormous quadruped! What difplay of greatnefs, of wisdom, and power, in fuck a heap of parts, all equally perfect, and comprised in fo fmall a fpace! Should the moft kilful 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 most able workman, and can be performed, only by that infinite wifdom and power, which is the attribute of the Creator alone, the firft and fole caufe of all existences.

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We shall be the more convinced of this truth, if we' observe the wonderful order and arrangement of fo many parts. In the animals, different from infects, the head, the eyes, the forehead, the mouth, the teeth, the tongue, the breast, 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 thefe 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 perfect; but it is univerfal and invariable: it is feen 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 loath fome infects.

But the diverfity obfervable in all thefe members, is a circumftance not lefs worthy of admiration.— Though their number is vaft, yet there is not one that refembles anther; 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 difpofe 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 fome perfon fuperintended the building of the town, who had judgment to plan it, and power to retrain the inclination of individuals from building every one according to his fancy. If, notwithstanding the regularity of each particular editicea

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edifice, it fhould be obferved, that they differed very much from one another, we would not fail to con clude, that the architect was poffeffed of an inventive genius, capable of imagining many plans, fubordinate and fubfervient to the general defign. But how great is the difference, between the most 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 fingle thing, to that which can do fo always, and in a multitude of different defigns! The former exercifes fancy and taste only, in the conftruction of a town, the other exerts both, a million of times, in the ftructure 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 and freedom. But how great is the diftance 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 thefe reflections is clear and natural, that infects have been formed by a Being, fupremely free, infinitely wife, and all-powerful.

The diverfity which I have remarked in the numbers of infects does not in the leaft prevent them from poffeffing the moft 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 deftined to form one whole. None of thefe limbs interrupt the motion of another; on the contrary, they co-operate together, and thus facilitate the tranfportation 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 otherwife 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 reafon to attribute the caufe of a ftructure fo wonderful to a being infinitely wife, and infinitely powerful? What other, not abfolutely perfect, could fabricate a machine which difplays fo many characters of wifdom and power? What other could have betowed 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 seek their food at the top of the highest trees? How does it happen that chance never mistakes on this head? We find conftantly, and without exception, that thofe infects which are obliged to feek their food in diftant. places, have the organs of fight and fmell fo keen and delicate as to difcover that food afar off; but the fenfibility of thefe organs would be ufelefs to them without the power of motion: and accordingly they are furnished with wings fit to carry them to a diftance. 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 fkin 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 thefe wonderful phænomena, CHA P. III.

CHA P. III.

OF SOME SINGULAR QUALITIES IN CERTAIN
INSECTS.

In the number of fingular qualities belonging to infects I put the fmallness of fome of them, which, not only in comparison with other animals are exceffively minute, but even in comparison with one a nother. There is a fpecics of fcorpion, one eight of a yard long, and Bufbequius affures us that he faw in Turkey an ant from the East Indies as big as a middle fized dog. Thefe infects are very large in comparison with moft others, and especially with those which are no larger than a grain of millet, the point of a needle. or which are even fo minute as to be imperceptible, except with the affiftance of a microf cope. What can the naked eye take in lefs than the cheele mite? And yet this infect has a head, joints, mufcles, antennæ, hairs, inteftines, &c. Thofe parts of cheese which it feeds on, must be still more minute. How fine must be the nutritive juice, which circulates in the veins of fo fmall an animal! From this circumftance alone we might infer the infinite divifibility of matter.

Some infects fhine in the night like fire. Nature hath produced certain bodies endowed with an innate property of giving light. This light is lively and briliant in fome, as it is feen in funthine. In others it is weaker, and fhines only during night, the great

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