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author whatever. It is well known that fome, after having distinguished infects into feveral claffes, have divided their work into as many parts as there are different fpecies. Others have been content to give their obfervations juft as they occurred without any other arrangment then chance fuggefted. I fhall begin by making an exact and general divifion of infects; after which I fhall treat in detail of their parts and qualities, instead of confining myself to a mere Natural hiftory, and I will endeavour to dispose my readers to attribute to God, all those miracles that I fhall lay before them.

But a compleat history of infects, must not be expected here; the thing is impoffible. How is fuch an amazing number of fmall animals to be investigated? How many fwim on the furface of the fea, or lurk at the bottom of the deep that we can form no idea of; who can tell the number of thofe that fwarm in the bottom of rivers, in marfhes and ftagnant waters, and which never appear on the furface? How many unknown infects may there not be in thofe countries into which no traveller has hitherto entered? So true is the remark of the fon of Sirach!" The diversity "of animals, is one of the most incredible and won"derful works of the Creator. However much we

may speak of them, we fhall never declare them all. Many things are hidden, greater than thofe we "know, and we have only feen a part of his works."

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THERE is nothing in the univerfe which does not

owe its existence to fome caufe different from the universe itself. To this cause must be attributed the different forms of things, and their existence in one form, rather than in another. This cannot be denied, without obliging ùs to maintain, that every thing in nature, fprang from nothing. But to what would fuch an abfurd opinion lead? Surely to two contradictions equally palpable. The first, that nothing had produced fomething at the very time when it was not what it was neceffary it fhould be, in order to its producing; the latter that fome one thing had produced itfelf; which fuppofes it to have exifted before its own formation.

As Infects make a part of thofe bodies that com pose the universe, they are fubjected, in common with every other, to this general law. They have a prin ciple of exiftence diftinct from themfelves, a principle from which they receive their nature and form, and which retains them conftantly in that very form, though it is easy to conceive that they might have had a different one. For in the fame way as a painter, who works from fancy, may reprefent Infects whofe poffible exiftence is only imaginary, and animals of uncommon shapes; grasshoppers for inftance, like thofe in the Apocalypfe, with the face of a man, the hair of a woman, the teeth of a lion, the tail of a fcorpion, or any thing ftill more incongruous which his imagination can fuggeft; in the fame way might the infects which exift in nature have received from the creative principle a form, different from that they actually have, and which diftinguishes them from every other living creature.

Now the question is to know what this principle is, which hath formed infects fuch as they are; whether it refides originally in themselves, or if it emanates from fome extrinfic power. It cannot be faid to refide in themselves; in that cafe they would be the authors and mafters of their own exiftence; they might change their form at pleasure, they could alfo make themselves immutable and immortal. But far from poffeffing this independance they are fo fubjected to the laws of their fpecies, that a flea can never produce a wafp, nor a bee a grasshopper; that the parts they are compofed of grow impotent through use, change and perifh; and that if by any accident they lofe a limb they cannot repair that lofs, by giving themselves another.

We are acquainted only with two orders of fubftances, one material, the other immaterial. The ma

ferial fubftance, being in the fame circumftances with infects, is not the caufe of its own exiftence, and cannot bestow it on any thing whatever. For the truth. of this I appeal to experience. The man of most exalted endowments in the clafs of material beings, whatever intelligence and induftry, he may be poffeffed of cannot create the fmalleft infect. But if matter is not the principle which gives thefe exiftence, càn we fay that they have received it from the fecond fort of fubftances called immaterial? By no means; for immaterial fubftances have only a very limited power, but an infinite power is neceffary to draw any thing out of nothing; confequently no created being can be the creative principle of infects, confequently likewife, in order to find this principle, we must afcend to a fupreme being who exifts by his own energy, who cannot cease to exift, who is permanent, immutable, and who includes in himself the cause of all things, in a word to that being whom we know under the name of God.

It is alfo this great Being whom the Scripture points out to us, as the general caufe of every thing that exifts. "Lift up your eyes on high, and be "hold who hath created these things, that bringeth " out their hoft by number: he calleth them all by

names, by the greatnefs of his might, for that he "is ftrong in power, not one faileth."" Lord, "thou art God, which haft made heaven and earth, "and the fea, and all that in them is."

Infects are not excepted from this general law; "God, fays Mofes, commanded the earth to produce "living creatures after their kind, cattle, creeping

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things, and beafts after their kind." Is not God then the author of Infects as well as of other aniinals?

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