will ever occur in which fome ftate will not be the place of action. Thus fuperftition can never want a pretext; it will always find means either of predicting truly or of excufing its mistakes.

Merchants likewife make a bad ufe of infects in commerce. We know in what eftimation cochineal is held in the art of dying, on account of the beauty of its colour. Those who trade in that article, often mix it with little red beetles, by which means they make a confiderable profit. The trick is as dishonest, as if a merchant fhould fell wine and water for pure wine. When the dyer comes to make use of his purchase, he obtains no more colour, than is produced by the portion of true cochineal contained in the quantity employed.

Are there not many perfons, who flatter their vanity, with the use of filk? Raiment is neceffary for man, not only as a covering, but as a defence against the inclemency of the air. But might not leaves, or the skins of animals answer this purpofe? The antients contented themfelves with thefe; but, when in course of time, men began to distinguish themselves by magnificent apparel, a thousand ways were invented of miniftering to the luxury of drefs. It was then that they found the way of drawing threads from many plants, of depriving beafts of their hair and their wool, of undoing the cones of the filkworm; it was then that they fabricated linen and cotton cloths, that they dyed them of all forts of colours, and dreffed themselves, not fo much from neceffity, as out of prodigality and oftentation. These inventions fuperfeded the fimplicity of nature, every thing was changed, and what ought only to have been used to cover the nakednefs of man, was made an engine of his pride. Every age had its different fashions, and fo much was good taste overstrained

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that it ended in extravagance. The contagion fpread far and wide, and perfons, who might have lived easily on their eftate, preferred a filken habit to food, and wrapt themselves in poverty like a filk-worm in its cone. Vanity ought steadily to be refifted; and, if a reasonable man is expofed to it, either by his birth or his ftation, he ought never to lofe fight of the origin of a pompous exterior. The reflection will fortify him against the fuggeftions of pride; it will en gage him to turn to God, and to cry with ESTHER, XIV. 16." Thou knoweft my neceffity; for I abhor the fign of my high eftate which is upon mine head, "in the days wherein I fhew myfelf; and that I ab"hor it as a filthy rag, and that I wear it not, when "I am private by myself.

If vanity reigns among men, it domineers in the hearts of women. They not only deck their perfons, with the most precious ornaments that art can devife, but they endeavour to brighten their com plexion in fpite of nature. Miffing the grand fecret of re juvenefcence, they find a remedy for the want of beauty, in artifice and coquetry, and plunder the hives of bees, for wherewithal to efface the ravages of time. Thus, under a mask, borrowed from the filth of the earth, they endeavour to fafcinate the eye, and inveigle the heart.

The people of Lapland are fuperftitiously fond of an azure-coloured fly. They carry it about with them as a familiar fpirit, and think they have fuch power over it, that, at their command, it will attack cattle, or any perfon they chufe. The Danes have as abfurd a prepoffeffion, in favour of the Ofcabiora. They fuppofe, that whoever swallows this fea fish, will infallibly fee his wishes accomplished.

CHAP. VII.

CHAP. VII.

OF THE ABUSE OF INSECTS IN THEOLOGY,

THE Pagans, in making infects-the objects of divine worship, have committed a grofs outrage on reason. We imitate fuch idolators, when we fubftitute the creature for the Creator; or, when we pay thofe honours to the work of men's hands, which are due only to God. Let us go back to the early ages of Paganifm, and trace the origin of fuch prepofterous blindness. Man, abandoned to himfelf, is too fenfible of his dependance, to doubt that there is a fuperior Being, to whom he owes love and refpect; but, as God is in his nature invifible, and difplays himself only by his benefits, man fuppofes, that he cannot better serve his Benefactor, than by doing him honour, under the form of thofe objects by which he makes himself known. Thus he came to adore the Sun, the Moon, the Stars, the dead and the living, beafts and infects. St. Paul, in his Epistle to the Romans, Chap. 1. 23. proves this; for, when fpeaking of the Gentiles, he expreffes himfelf thus ; "They changed the glory of the uncorruptible God, "into an image made like to corruptible man, and "to birds, and four-footed beafts, and creeping "things." The author of the book of Wisdom, Chap. x1. 15. 16. fays the fame thing of the Jews, who were punished by the very objects of their foolith worship. "But for the foolish devices of their "wickedness,

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wickednefs, wherewith being deceived, they worfhipped ferpents void of reafon, and vile beafts, "thou didst fend a multitude of unreasonable "beafts upon them for vengeance; that they might "know that, wherewithal a man finneth, by the "fame alfo fhall he be punished."

The Pagans, befide their facrifices, made an offering of honey to their idols, which has made fome perfons fuppofe, that this was the reafon of the Jews being forbidden to offer any in their facrifices. If we may believe Aldrovandus, the inhabitants of Tlafcala do not lefs abufe the produce of their bees. They take the wax, and make candles of it, which they offer to their idols in token of fubmission. Thefe odicus practices are not only ftrengthened by cuftom, but they have led the way to more criminal exceffes; for folemn feafts have been inftituted in honour of infects. Calius Rhodiginus mentions a day, fet apart for the worship of crickets, and fays, that the Pagans of ancient Rome celebrated, with much veneration, the eighth of the calends of December, in order to make thefe falfe deities propitious to their country. So fuperftitious were they, that, whenever a fwarm of bees lighted in the neighbourhood of their city, they confidered it as polluted, and fuppofed it an omen of misfortunes. To ward off thele, they appointed folemn days, in which they deprecated the wrath of their gods: they did fo, likewife, when they believed the grafshoppers unpropi tious.

The Jews relate many wonderful things of infects, but which are confidered as fables at beft, by men of fenfe. It is faid, I. KINGs vi. 7. that, "in building "the house, (i. e. the temple) it was built of ftone, "made ready before it was brought thither; fo that there was neither haminer nor ax, nor any tool of

iron heard in the houfe, while it was in building." The Jews, to explain this paffage, have no hefitation in faying, that the workmen employed a worm to fhape the ftones, which infect, named Schamir, cut, and broke them in the places to which it was ap plied. They add, that it was of the figure of a grain of barley, and that it was kept in a leaden box, because, had it reached any rocks, it would have cleft and destroyed them. No hiftorian, however, except thofe Rabbis, fpeaks of this prodigy. We have as much difficulty in believing another circumftance they affure us of, namely, that, though in the promifed land, there were multitudes of flies, there were never any within the precincts of the temple, notwithstanding the number of animals facrificed there, that, on the contrary, in the Pagan facrifices, every thing was fo covered with infects, that the chief of their idols was called Beel zebub, that is to fay, the god of flies and gnats. Without waiting to enquire, how far the fire and fmoke might keep infects at a diflance from the altar, I fhall only obferve, that it is not to be believed, that the temple could be abfolutely free of them; the more, as the Scripture makes no mention of this, and the circumstance certainly deferved to be recorded, had it been true. As to the places of the Pagan facrifices, I believe, that flies would crowd to them from all parts, before the fire was put to the victims, becaule, they would thus follow their natural inclination for the flesh of animals. The Rabbis likewife introduce a number of marvellous adventures in the history of David; among others, that, upon occafion of his retreat to the cave of Adullam, God commanded a fpider to hide the bottom of the cave with her web from Saul, who thus loft the opportunity of feizing his enemy. The manner, in which we know that David furprised Saul, when encamped on the hill of Hakila, has this additional circumflance, that