in the formation of every class of created ob ,sects, is not to be measured by the magnitude of the thing, but by the harmony of the design with the purpose it is intended to produce. Viewed in this light, the sting of a bee, the wing of a gnat, or the proboscis of a butterfly, call forth as much admiration as the trunk of an elephant. Nor does the formation of the minute parts of Nature, show less power in the artist, than those that astonish by their greatness. The wonders of a world, or the curious mechanism of a common fly, are equally beyond the capability of any being t.o produce, but that Supreme Intelligence who created the universe. Some naturalists consider insects as the least perfect class of animals, because many of them can live a long time after losing those organs that are essential to the existence of the nobler creatures. A caterpillar, for example, will live whets its heart and lungs have been entirely eaten away. If we admit them to be inferior, it seems to consist rather in the narrow limits of their intellectual faculties, than in their conformation, which, like that of all other creatures, discovers such perfection of design, that it is impossible to say in what class of animals it is most conspicuous. The instincts of bees, ants, wasps, and probably of all the other tribes of insects, were we better

2   acquainted