new head taking above three or four months for its completion, a new tail being shot forth in less than as many weeks. Thus, two animals, by dissection, were made out of one; each with their separate appetites: each endued with life and motion; and seemingly as perfect as that single animal from whence they derived their origin! This singular fact exhibits a striking proof of the comparative imperfection of their organs, and seems to justify the classifying them in the order of Zoophytes, a name which, as above remarked, implies vegetable nature endued with animal life.

For the purpose of exhibiting, in a striking light, the weakness and abjection of man, the sacred writers sometimes compare him to this mean reptile, Job xxv. 1; Psalm xxii. 6.

In Mark ix. 44, we read of the worm that dieth not, and the fire that is unquenchable; a passage which is evidently taken from Isaiah lxvi. 24, where the subject is the punishment to be inflicted on the incorrigible in this life, in order to describe, as is usual with the Jewish writers, the judgment of another world. Losing sight of this circumstance, some writers who have argued against the eternity of future punishments, have improperly and unwarrantably restricted the sense of the passage. The place of the damned is compared to a field where carcasses are thrown out, and are gnawed by worms, or burnt with fire. Such was their Gehenna, or the Valley of Hinnom, near Jerusalem; odious by the former sacrifices to Moloch, and afterwards desecrated by Josiah, by being made a common burying place. Le Clerc and some others think there is an allusion to the two sorts of funeral rites, burning and burying. Hence, says bishop Lowth, the worms which preyed on the carcasses, and the fire which consumed the victims.

INSECTS.

Or all the productions of nature, insects are by far the most numerous; and as they are endowed with the various powers of creeping, flying, and swimming, there is scarcely any place, however remote and secure, in which they are not to be found. They are placed by naturalists in the lowest rank of animated nature; and their conformation, their instincts, and their amazing numbers, are said to show the propriety of such a classification.

But in this numerous class of animated beings, where shall we find a single instance in which imperfection is made to appear? In all the prodigious variety that exists between the scorpion and the mite, we certainly behold in the structure of insects abundant evidence of the most exquisite skill; and if by means of the microscope we extend our researches downwards through that minute order of beings, till we arrive at those invisible animalcules which are computed to be twenty-seven millions of times smaller than a mite the same evidences of wisdom and design present themselves in every gradation, and all ideas of imperfection cease.*

It is not at all surprising, then, that such an accurate searcher into nature's works as the excellent Mr. Boyle, should observe that his wonder dwelt not so much on nature's clocks as on her watches.' In several kinds of insects, invisible before to mortal eye, it is not only easy to discover, by means of a good magnifier, the external appearance of their mouths, their horus, their trunks, and other members, but the very motion of their heart and lungs! Now, as these little animals are discovered to be organized bodies, how fine and subtle must be the several parts that compose them! How difficult to conceive the extreme minuteness of the muscles necessary to the motion of the heart, the glands for the secretion of the fluids, the stomach and bowels for the digestion of the food, the fineness of the tubes, nerves, arteries, veins; and above all, of the blood, the lymph, and animal spirits, which must be infinitely more so than any of these! Here the utmost stretch of imagination is brought to the test, without being able to form any adequate conception. But these inconceivable wonders, instead of conveying

*The defects of art are easily discovered by the microscope; but the more narrowly we pry into or scrutinize the works of nature by this instrument, the more the perfection of the inimitable Artist is made to appear. Viewed by this glass, the finest needle ever polished, presents to the eye a blunt and rugged point; but the sting of a bee, however magnified, still retains all its acuteness of termination.

any idea of imperfection as to the skill of the Artist, must, from what they make to appear, inspire the attentive observer with very different emotions, and force him to exclaim,

"Thyself, how wond'rous then!"

The beauty and symmetry of some of these minute objects, so viewed, are surprising indeed. What a metamorphosis do they seem to undergo under the magic-working glass! Creatures that before seemed small and despicable, now appear the pride of nature, wherein she has bestowed more nice and delicate art, and displayed more profusely the rich embroidery and elegant beauties and garniture of colors, than in any of the larger species of animals.' Even the dust that adheres to the butterfly's wing, and to which it owes the beautiful tints and variegated hues that adorn it, is said to be an innumerable collection of extremely small feathers, as perfect in the structure and symmetry of the arrangement, as they are beautiful in the coloring.

But this is not all. The very circumstances adduced as marks of imperfection in the insect tribes; viz. their being enabled to live for some time after being deprived of those organs necessary to life in the higher ranks, and their amazing numbers, ought rather to be considered as arguments to the contrary. The former is no doubt essentially necessary to the preservation of a species exposed to so many casualties as those in particular who live on blood, and cannot, therefore, partake of a meal, without giving their enemies notice of their presence; and the latter, to prevent the extinction of a short-lived race, which come into existence at a time when there are so many open mouths ready to devour them.

Without these two characteristic distinctions of the insect tribes, although they may be deemed imperfections by the more imperfect powers of short-sighted mortals, it is probable that, long ere now, some of those exquisite pieces of nature's workmanship must have disappeared from the creation, and, for want of those connecting links, the whole beautiful fabric of the universe must have fallen to decay. For, trifling as some of these minute or imperceptible objects may appear, the language of philosophy is

Each crawling insect holds a rank
Important in the plan of HIM who framed
This scale of beings; holds a rank, which, lost,
Would broak the chain, and leave a gap

That Nature's self would rue.'

Instead, therefore, of having the presumption to stigmatize, in the most remote degree, this particular order of the creatures of the Almighty, as affording evidences of imperfection, let us rather, from similar considerations, adopt the words of the more judicious Swammerdam: After an attentive examination,' says he, 'of the nature and anatomy of the smallest as well as the largest animals, I cannot help allowing the least, an equal or perhaps a superior degree of dignity. If, while we dissect with care the larger ani

mals, we are filled with wonder at the elegant disposition of their parts, to what a height is our astonishment raised, when we discover all these parts arranged in the least, in the same regular manner!' And, to sum up the matter in the words of another naturalist: 'Of this dispute it is only necessary to observe, that the wisdom of the Creator is so conspicuous in all his works, and such surprising art is discovered in the mechanism of the body of every creature, that it is very difficult if not impossible, to say where it is most and where it is least to be observed.

We have already pointed out the Mosaic distinction between clean and unclean insects, to which the reader is referred.

SECTION I.

WINGLESS INSECTS.

THE SCORPION.

THE Scorpion is the largest and most malignant of all the insect tribes. From the above engraving, it will be seen that it somewhat resembles the lobster in its general appearance, but is much more hideous. Those found in Europe seldom exceed four inches in length, but in the tropical climates it is not an unusual thing to meet with them twelve inches long.

There are few animals more formidable, and none more irascible, than the scorpion; but, happily for mankind, it is equally destructive to its own species as to other animals. Goldsmith states, that Maupertius put about a hundred of them together in the same glass, and they scarcely came into contact, when they began to exert all their rage in mutual destruction; so that, in a few days, there remained but fourteen, which had killed and devoured all the rest. But their malignity is still more apparent in their cruelty to their offspring. He enclosed a female scorpion, big with young, in a glass vessel, and she was seen to devour them as fast as they were excluded. There was only one of the number that escaped the general destruction, by taking refuge on the back of its parent; and this soon after revenged the cause of its brethren, by killing the old one in its turn. Such is the terrible nature of this insect; and it is even asserted, that when placed in circumstances of danger, from which it perceives no way of escape, it will sting itself to death. Surely, says Mr. Taylor, Moses very properly mentions scorpions among the dangers of the wilderness, Deut. viii. 15. And what shall we think of the hazardous situation of Ezekiel, who is said to dwell among scorpions (ch. ii. 6)—people as irascible as this terri