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INTRODUCTION.

THERE is nothing in Nature, however abject it may appear, which is not a fubject of wonder to the man who fets himself seriously to confider it. Far from being unworthy of our regard, the ftudy of Naturė is not only useful but neceffary to us, fince it furnishes as many occafions of praifing our Creator, as there are objects to contemplate. But the greater part of mankind, insensible to this reflection, hardly deign to caft their eyes on those objects which they have thought proper to denominate vile. Infects they confider as below their notice, or merely as fubjects of curiofity, which it would be both ufelefs and troublefome to investigate; and to this contempt, we muft attribute that indifference with which moft people are accustomed to examine them. They are viewed without regard, and inconfiderately crufhed to death, when they are found in our way.

I could excufe a vulgar mind for ridiculing the ftudy I recommend: but I think myself authorised to raise my voice against men of learning, who would rank the study of infects in the number of human weakneffes. Is not the fmalleft worm, the work of the Supreme Being, as well as the most perfect animal ? And if God has judged it not below him to create

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it, why fhould it be thought a weakness in a reafonable man to make it the object of his research? But the vileft infect is a work of omnipotence, worthy of the highest admiration. It is endowed with fo many perfections, thatthe most powerful monarch, or the most skilful artift, can produce nothing to be compared with it. God alone can work thofe wonders, and he prefents them to us, not as models for our in.itation, but as fo many teftimonies of his power and wifdom. It is our duty therefore to correfpond to his views, and to con. template his perfections, even in the smallest of his works. Among all the animals, we alone, are capable of this contemplation. The fun fheds his beams over all the earth; but man alone comprehends their fource and perceives their effects. Beafts live and grow, but they know not how. is unconscious of his ftrength; ingale of the melody of her voice; the butterfly of the beauty of its wing; and the caterpil lar gnaws the leaf without knowing what it is that affords it fuftenance. Can we doubt then, that the tribute of admiration which I demand from the faculties of man, is a reafonable tribute, which he owes to his Creator?

The Lion the night

Man ought not to confine his reflections to infects alone, he is capable of carrying them infinitely farther. I allow. it; I even confefs that he would in fome degree debafe his powers were he to limit himfelf to this fingle employment; and were he, for the ftudy of infects, to facrifice the knowledge

he

he may obtain of the

ny different animals.

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My defign is not to be the apologist of those who are mere collectors of the refufe of Nature, if I may ufe the expreffion, and who make cabinets for fhew. more worthy of their attention. But on the other hand, I cannot blame the man of piety, who contemplates the power of his Creator in the fmallest as well as in the greateft of his works. It is true, he cannot become acquainted with the whole. The objects which the heavens, the earth, and the waters present to his meditation, are too manifold for him to hope that he can know them all alike. Such an attempt is far beyond the powers of man. Every one ought therefore to chufe, amongst the infinite variety of the works of God, fome particular department as the principal object of his ftudy. Convinced of the juftice of this reflection, I have betaken myself to infects; I have ftudied them with all the application I am mafter of, and I have found them more entitled to admiration, than to contempt. The remarks I have made on the fubject appeared to me of fufficient importance to be laid before the public. They will ferve as a proof, that the majesty of the Creator is manifeft in all his works, and that it fhines confpicuously even in the smallest infect.

But I am not the first who have painted them out as exhibiting visible marks of the omnipotence and infinite wifdom of the Being, who prefides over the Univerfe. 66 Every fpccies of animals,

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(fays St Auguftin,) is poffeffed of beauties pecu liar to itself. The more man confiders them, the more they excite his admiration, and the more they engage him to adore the Author of Nature, who has made every thing in wifdom, who has fubjected every thing to his power, and whofe f goodness governs the whole. These attributes are difcoverable in the very vileft of animals, which are destined by their nature to perif, and whofe diffolution terrifies us. They are small, it is true, but the delicacy and arrangement of their parts is admirable. If we examine with attention a common fly, its agility will appear more furprising, than the fwiftnefs of a beaft of prey at full speed; and with the fame attention, the ftrength of the camel will feem lefs wonderful than the labour of an ant."

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If you talk of a ftone, fays St Bafil, of a gnat or of a bee, your difccurie is a fort of demonftration of the power of him who formed them; for the wifdom of the workman generally manifefts itfelf in what is moft minute. He who hath stretched hath hollowed the bed

out the heavens, and who

of the ocean, is the fame who hath pierced the iting of the bee, to form a paffage for its poifon.'

St Jerome is equally clear: It is not only in the creation of the heavens, of the earth, of the Sun, and the fea, of elephants, camels, horfes and oxen, of tigers, bears, and lions, that the Creator is to be admired. He is not lefs

great

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