and is proud to enumerate the various useful arts and machines to
which they have given birth, not aware that "He who teacheth man
knowledge" has instructed these despised insects to anticipate him
in many of them. The builders of Babel doubtless thought their
invention of turning earth into artificial stone, a very happy
discovery[33]; yet a little bee[34] had practised this art, using
indeed a different process, on a small scale, and the white ants on
a large one, ever since the world began. Man thinks that he stands
unrivalled as an architect, and that his buildings are without a
parallel among the works of the inferior orders of animals. He would
be of a different opinion did he attend to the history of insects:
he would find that many of them have been architects from time
immemorial; that they have had their houses divided into various
apartments, and containing staircases, gigantic arches, domes,
colonnades, and the like; nay, that even tunnels are excavated by
them so immense, compared with their own size, as to be twelve times
bigger than that projected by Mr. Dodd to be carried under the Thames
at Gravesend[35]. The modern fine lady, who prides herself on the
lustre and beauty of the scarlet hangings which adorn the stately
walls of her drawing-room, or the carpets that cover its floor,
fancying that nothing so rich and splendid was ever seen before,
and pitying her vulgar ancestors, who were doomed to unsightly
white-wash and rushes, is ignorant all the while, that before she or
her ancestors were in existence, and even before the boasted Tyrian
dye was discovered, a little insect had known how to hang the walls
of its cell with tapestry of a scarlet more brilliant than any her
rooms can exhibit[36]; and that others daily weave silken carpets,
both in tissue and texture infinitely superior to those she so much
admires. No female ornament is more prized and costly than lace, the
invention and fabrication of which seems the exclusive claim of the
softer sex. But even here they have been anticipated by these little
industrious creatures, who often defend their helpless chrysalis, by
a most singular covering, and as beautiful as singular, of lace[37].
Other arts have been equally forestalled by these creatures. What
vast importance is attached to the invention of paper! For near six
thousand years one of our commonest insects has known how to make
and apply it to its purposes[38]; and even pasteboard, superior
in substance and polish to any we can produce, is manufactured by
another[39]. We imagine that nothing short of human intellect can
be equal to the construction of a diving-bell or an air-pump--yet a
spider is in the daily habit of using the one, and, what is more, one
exactly similar in principle to ours, but more ingeniously contrived;
by means of which she resides unwetted in the bosom of the water,
and procures the necessary supplies of air by a much more simple
process than our alternating buckets[40]--and the caterpillar of
a little moth knows how to imitate the other, producing a vacuum,
when necessary for its purposes, without any piston besides its own
body[41]. If we think with wonder of the populous cities which have
employed the united labours of man for many ages to bring them to
their full extent, what shall we say to the white ants, which require
only a few months to build a metropolis capable of containing an
infinitely greater number of inhabitants than even imperial Nineveh,
Babylon, Rome, or Pekin, in all their glory?
That insects should thus have forestalled us in our inventions
ought to urge us to pay a closer attention to them and their ways
than we have hitherto done, since it is not at all improbable that
the result would be many useful hints for the improvement of our
arts and manufactures, and perhaps for some beneficial discoveries.
The painter might thus probably be furnished with more brilliant
pigments, the dyer with more delicate tints, and the artisan with a
new and improved set of tools. In this last respect insects deserve
particular notice. All their operations are performed with admirable
precision and dexterity; and though they do not usually vary the
mode, yet that mode is always the best that can be conceived for
attaining the end in view. The instruments also with which they
are provided are no less wonderful and various than the operations
themselves. They have their saws, and files, and augers, and gimlets,
and knives, and lancets, and scissors, and forceps, with many other
similar implements; several of which act in more than one capacity,
and with a complex and alternate motion to which we have not yet
attained in the use of our tools. Nor is the fact so extraordinary as
it may seem at first, since "He who is wise in heart and wonderful in
working" is the inventor and fabricator of the apparatus of insects;
which may be considered as a set of miniature patterns drawn for our
use by a Divine hand. I shall hereafter give you a more detailed
account of some of the most striking of these instruments; and if
you study insects in this view, you will be well repaid for all the
labour and attention you bestow upon them.
But a more important species of instruction than any hitherto
enumerated may be derived from entomological pursuits. If we attend
to the history and manners of insects, they will furnish us with
many useful lessons in Ethics, and from them we may learn to improve
ourselves in various virtues. We have indeed the inspired authority
of the wisest of mankind for studying them in this view, since he
himself wrote a treatise upon them, and sends his sluggard to one for
a lesson of wisdom[42]. And if we value diligence and indefatigable
industry; judgement, prudence, and foresight; economy and frugality;
if we look upon modesty and diffidence as female ornaments; if we
revere parental affection--of all these, and many more virtues,
insects in their various instincts exhibit several striking examples,
as you will see in the course of our correspondence.
With respect to religious instruction insects are far from
unprofitable; indeed in this view Entomology seems to possess
peculiar advantages above every other branch of Natural History.
In the larger animals, though we admire the consummate art and
wisdom manifested in their structure, and adore that Almighty
power and goodness which by a wonderful machinery, kept in motion
by the constant action and re-action of the great positive and
negative powers of Nature, maintains in full force the circulations
necessary to life, perception, and enjoyment; yet as there seems
no disproportion between the objects and the different operations
that are going on in them, and we see that they afford sufficient
space for the play of their systems, we do not experience the same
sensations of wonder and astonishment that strike us when we behold
similar operations carried on without interruption in animals
scarcely visible to the naked eye. That creatures, which in the scale
of being are next to non-entities, should be elaborated with so much
art and contrivance, have such a number of parts both internal and
external, all so highly finished and each so nicely calculated to
answer its end; that they should include in this evanescent form
such a variety of organs of perception and instruments of motion,
exceeding in number and peculiarity of structure those of other
animals; that their nervous and respiratory systems should be so
complex, their secretory and digestive vessels so various and
singular, their parts of generation so clearly developed, and that
these minims of nature should be endowed with instincts in many cases
superior to all our boasted powers of intellect--truly these wonders
and miracles declare to every one who attends to the subject, "The
hand that made us is divine." We are the work of a Being infinite in
power, in wisdom, and in goodness.
But no religious doctrine is more strongly established by the
history of insects than that of a superintending Providence. That
of the innumerable species of these beings, many of them beyond
conception fragile and exposed to dangers and enemies without end,
no link should be lost from the chain, but all be maintained in
those relative proportions necessary for the general good of the
system; that if one species for a while preponderate, and instead
of preserving seem to destroy, yet counterchecks should at the same
time be provided to reduce it within its due limits; and further,
that the operations of insects should be so directed and overruled as
to effect the purposes for which they were created and never exceed
their commission: nothing can furnish a stronger proof than this,
that an unseen hand holds the reins, now permitting one to prevail
and now another, as shall best promote certain wise ends; and saying
to each, "Hitherto shalt thou come and no further."
So complex is this mundane system, and so incessant the conflict
between its component parts, an observation which holds good
particularly with regard to insects, that if instead of being under
such control it were left to the agency of blind chance, the whole
must inevitably soon be deranged and go to ruin. Insects, in truth,
are a book in which whoever reads under proper impressions cannot
avoid looking from the effect to the cause, and acknowledging his
eternal power and godhead thus wonderfully displayed and irrefragably
demonstrated: and whoever beholds these works with the eyes of the
body, must be blind indeed if he cannot, and perverse indeed if
he will not, with the eye of the soul behold in all his glory the
Almighty Workman, and feel disposed, with every power of his nature,
to praise and magnify
"Him first, Him last, Him midst, Him without end."
And now having led you to the vestibule of an august temple, which in
its inmost sanctuary exhibits enshrined in glory the symbols of the
Divine Presence, I should invite you to enter and give a tongue to
the Hallelujahs, which every creature in its place, by working his
will with all its faculties, pours forth to its great Creator: but I
must first endeavour to remove, as I trust I shall effectually, those
objections to the study of these interesting beings which I alluded
to in the outset of this letter, and this shall be the aim of my next
address.
I am, &c.
FOOTNOTES:
[4] The genera _Eumolpus_, _Lamprima_, _Rynchites_.
[5] _Cryptorhynchus corruscans._ N.B. Germar (_Insect. Spec. Nov._
i. 216--) regards this insect as synonymous with Illiger's _Eurhin
cupratus_, the description of which I had not seen when the Century
of Insects (_Linn. Trans._ xii.) was written, nor am I able now to
speak decisively on the subject.--K.
[6] _Helicopis Cupido_, _Argynnis Passifloræ_, _Lathonia_, &c.
[7] _Pepsis fuscipennis_, _argentata_, &c.
[8] The species of the genus _Trox_.
[9] Many of the _Scarabæidæ_, _Dynastidæ_, &c.
[10] Many caterpillars of _Butterflies_. Merian _Surinam_, t. xxii.
xxv. &c. and of _Sawflies_. Reaum. v. _t._ xii. _f._ 7, 8-14.
[11] Various species of the genera _Locusta_ and _Mantis_, F.
[12] Many species of _Phasma_.
[13] De Geer, I. _t._ 3. _f._ 1-34, &c.
[14] _Vanessa Io_.
[15] _Culex_, _Chironomus_, and other _Tipulariæ_.
[16] _Pterophorus._
[17] Hairs of many of the _Apidæ. Mon. Ap. Ang._ I. _t._ 10, ** d. 1.
_f._ 1. _b._
[18] _Ptinus imperialis_, L.
[19] _Trichius delta_, F.
[20] _Acrocinus longimanus_, F. _Vanessa, C. album, Acronycta_ ψ,
_Plusia_ γ.
[21] On the underside of the primary wings near the margin in
_Argynnis Aglaia_, _Lathonia_, _Selene_, &c.
[22] _Empis_, _Asilus_.
[23] _Onthophagus Taurus_, Curtis _Brit. Ent. t._ 52.
[24] _Lucanus Cervus._
[25] _Oryctes._
[26] _Dynastes Hercules._
[27] _Andrena spinigera. Melitta._ ** c. K.
[28] _Hispa._
[29] This insect belonged to the late Mr. Francillon, and was purchased
at his sale by Mr. MacLeay. Mr. W. S. MacLeay informs us that he has
given the name of _Eusceles_ to the group to which it belongs.
[30] _Raphidia ophiopsis._
[31] This idea seems to have been present to the mind of Linné and
Fabricius, when they gave to insects such names as _Belzebub_,
_Belial_, _Titan_, _Typhon_, _Nimrod_, _Geryon_, and the like.
[32] Plin. _Hist. Nat._ l. 11. c. 2.
[33] Gen. xi. 3.
[34] _Megachile muraria._
[35] The white ants.
[36] _Megachile Papaveris._
[37] The late ingenious Mr. Paul, of Harleston in Norfolk, under the
bark of a tree discovered a considerable portion of a fabric of this
kind, which from its amplitude must have been destined for some other
purpose.
[38] The common wasp.
[39] _Polistes nidulans._
[40] _Argyroneta aquatica._
[41] _Tinea serratella_, L.
[42] 1 Kings iv. 33. Prov. vi. 6-8.
LETTER II.
_OBJECTIONS ANSWERED._
In my last I gave you a general view of the science of Entomology,
and endeavoured to prove to you that it possesses attractions and
beauty sufficient to reward any student who may profess himself
its votary. I am now to consider it in a less alluring light, as a
pursuit attended by no small degree of obloquy, in consequence of
certain objections thought to be urged with great force against it.
To obviate these, and remove every scruple from your mind, shall be
the business of the present letter.
Two principal objections are usually alleged with great confidence
against the study and pursuit of insects. By some they are derided as
trifling and unimportant, and deemed an egregious waste of time and
talents; by others they are reprobated as unfeeling and cruel, and as
tending to harden the heart.
* * * * *
I. I shall begin with the first of these objections--that the
entomologist is a mere trifler. As for the silly outcry and abuse
of the ignorant vulgar, who are always ready to laugh at what they
do not understand, and because insects are minute objects conclude
that the study of them must be a childish pursuit, I shall not waste
words upon what I so cordially despise. But since even learned men
and philosophers, from a partial and prejudiced view of the subject,
having recourse to this common-place logic, are sometimes disposed
to regard all inquiry into these minutiæ of nature as useless and
idle, and the mark of a little mind; to remove such prejudice and
misconceptions I shall now dilate somewhat upon the subject of _Cui
bono?_
When we see many wise and learned men pay attention to any particular
department of science, we may naturally conclude that it is on
account of some profit and instruction which they foresee may be
derived from it; and therefore in defending Entomology I shall first
have recourse to the _Argumentum ad verecundiam_, and mention the
great names that have cultivated or recommended it.
We may begin the list with the first man that ever lived upon
the earth, for we are told that he gave a name to every living
creature[43], amongst which insects must be included; and to give an
appropriate name to an object necessarily requires some knowledge of
its distinguishing properties. Indeed one of the principal pleasures
and employments of the paradisiacal state was probably the study
of the various works of creation[44]. Before the fall the book of
nature was the Bible of man, in which he could read the perfections
and attributes of the invisible Godhead[45], and in it, as in a
mirror, behold an image of the things of the spiritual world. Moses
also appears to have been conversant with our little animals, and
to have studied them with some attention. This he has shown, not
only by being aware of the distinctions which separate the various
tribes of grasshoppers, crickets &c. (_Gryllus_, L.) into different
genera[46], but also by noticing the different direction of the
two anterior from the four posterior legs of insects; for, as he
speaks of them as going upon four legs[47], it is evident that he
considered the two anterior as arms. Solomon, the wisest of mankind,
made Natural History a peculiar object of study, and left treatises
behind him upon its various branches, in which _creeping things_ or
insects were not overlooked[48]; and a wiser than Solomon directs
our attention to natural productions, when he bids us _consider_ the
lilies of the field[49], teaching us that they are more worthy of our
notice than the most glorious works of man: he also not obscurely
intimates that insects are symbolical beings, when he speaks of
scorpions as synonymous with evil spirits[50]; thus giving into
our hands a clue for a more profitable mode of studying them, as
furnishing moral and spiritual instruction.
If to these scriptural authorities we add those of uninspired
writers, ancient and modern, the names of many worthies, celebrated
both for wisdom and virtue, may be produced. Aristotle among the
Greeks, and Pliny the elder among the Romans, may be denominated the
fathers of Natural History, as well as the greatest philosophers of
their day; yet both these made insects a principal object of their
attention: and in more recent times, if we look abroad, what names
greater than those of Redi, Malpighi, Vallisnieri, Swammerdam,
Leeuwenhoek, Reaumur, Linné, De Geer, Bonnet, and the Hubers? and
at home, what philosophers have done more honour to their country
and to human nature than Ray, Willughby, Lister, and Derham? Yet all
these made the study of insects one of their most favourite pursuits;
and, as if to prove that this study is not incompatible with the
highest flights of genius, we can add to the list the name of one of
the most sublime of our poets, Gray, who was very zealously devoted
to Entomology. As far therefore as names have weight, the above
enumeration seems sufficient to shelter the votaries of this pleasing
science from the charge of folly.
But we do not wish to rest our defence upon authorities alone; let
the voice of reason be heard, and our justification will be complete.
The entomologist, or, to speak more generally, the naturalist (for
on this question of _Cui bono?_ every student in all departments of
Natural History is concerned), if the following considerations be
allowed their due weight, may claim a much higher station amongst the
learned than has hitherto been conceded to him.
There are two principal avenues to knowledge--the study of words
and the study of things. Skill in the learned languages being often
necessary to enable us to acquire knowledge in the former way,
is usually considered as knowledge itself; so that no one asks
_Cui bono?_ when a person devotes himself to the study of verbal
criticism, and employs his time in correcting the errors that have
crept into the text of an ancient writer. Indeed it must be owned,
though perhaps too much stress is sometimes laid upon it, that this
is very useful to enable us to ascertain his true meaning. But after
all, words are but the arbitrary signs of ideas, and have no value
independent of those ideas, further than what arises from congruity
and harmony, the mind being dissatisfied when an idea is expressed
by inadequate words, and the ear offended when their collocation is
inharmonious. To account the mere knowledge of words, therefore, as
wisdom, is to mistake the cask for the wine, and the casket for the
gem. I say all this because knowledge of words is often extolled
beyond its just merits, and put for all wisdom; while knowledge of
things, especially of the productions of nature, is derided as if it
were mere folly. We should recollect that God hath condescended to
instruct us by both these ways, and therefore neither of them should
be depreciated. He hath set before us his word and his world. The
former is the great avenue to truth and knowledge by the study of
_words_, and, as being the immediate and authoritative revelation
of his will, is entitled to our _principal_ attention; the latter
leads us to the same conclusions, though less directly, by the study
of _things_, which stands next in rank to that of God's word, and
before that of any work of man. And whether we direct our eyes to the
planets rolling in their orbits, and endeavour to trace the laws by
which they are guided through the vast of space, whether we analyse
those powers and agents by which all the operations of nature are
performed, or whether we consider the various productions of this our
globe, from the mighty cedar to the microscopic mucor--from the giant
elephant to the invisible mite, still we are studying the works and
wonders of our God. The book, to whatever page we turn, is written
by the finger of him who created us; and in it, provided our minds
be rightly disposed, we may read his eternal verities. And the more
accurate and enlarged our knowledge of his works, the better shall
we be able to understand his word; and the more practised we are in
his word, the more readily shall we discern his truth in his works;
for, proceeding from the same great Author, they must, when rightly
interpreted, mutually explain and illustrate each other.
Who then shall dare maintain, unless he has the hardihood to deny
that God created them, that the study of insects and their ways is
trifling or unprofitable? Were they not arrayed in all their beauty,
and surrounded with all their wonders, and made so instrumental (as
I shall hereafter prove them to be) to our welfare, that we might
glorify and praise him for them? Why were insects made attractive, if
not, as Ray well expresses it, that they might ornament the universe
and be delightful objects of contemplation to man[51]? And is it not
clear, as Dr. Paley has observed, that the production of beauty was
as much in the Creator's mind in painting a butterfly or in studding
a beetle, as in giving symmetry to the human frame, or graceful
curves to its muscular covering[52]? And shall we think it beneath
us to study what he hath not thought it beneath him to adorn and
place on this great theatre of creation? Nay, shall we extol those
to the skies who bring together at a vast expense the most valuable
specimens of the arts, the paintings and statues of Italy and Greece,
all of which, however beautiful, as works of man, fall short of
perfection; and deride and upbraid those who collect, for the purpose
of admiring their beauty, the finished and perfect chef-d'œuvres of
a Divine artist? May we gaze with rapture unblamed upon an Apollo of
Belvedere, or Venus de Medicis, or upon the exquisite paintings of a
Raphael or a Titian, and yet when we behold with ecstasy sculptures
that are produced by the chisel of the Almighty, and the inimitable
tints laid on by his pencil, because an insect is the subject, be
exposed to jeers and ridicule?
But there is another reason, which in the present age renders the
study of Natural History an object of importance to every well-wisher
to the cause of Religion, who is desirous of exerting his faculties
in its defence. For as enthusiasm and false religion have endeavoured
to maintain their ground by a perversion of the text of _scripture_,
so also the patrons of infidelity and atheism have laboured hard to
establish their impiety by a perversion of the text of _nature_. To
refute the first of these adversaries of truth and sound religion,
it is necessary to be well acquainted with the _word_ of God; to
refute the second, requires an intimate knowledge of his _works_;
and no department can furnish him with more powerful arguments of
every kind than the world of insects--every one of which cries out
in an audible voice, There is a God--he is Almighty, all-wise,
all-good--his watchful providence is ever, and every where, at work
for the preservation of all things.
But since mankind in general are too apt to look chiefly at this
world, and to regard things as important or otherwise in proportion
as they are connected with sublunary interests, and promote our
present welfare, I shall proceed further to prove that the study of
insects may be productive of considerable utility, even in this view,
and may be regarded in some sort as a necessary or at least a very
useful concomitant of many arts and sciences.
The importance of insects to us both as sources of good or evil, I
shall endeavour to prove at large hereafter; but for the present,
taking this for granted, it necessarily follows that the study of
them must also be important. For when we suffer from them, if we do
not know the cause, how are we to apply a remedy that may diminish
or prevent their ravages? Ignorance in this respect often occasions
us to mistake our enemies for our friends, and our friends for our
enemies; so that when we think to do good we only do harm, destroying
the innocent and letting the guilty escape. Many such instances have
occurred. You know the orange-coloured fly of the wheat, and have
read the account of the damage done by this little insect to that
important grain; you are aware also that it is given in charge to
three little parasites to keep it within due limits; yet at first it
was the general opinion of unscientific men, that these destroyers
of our enemy were its parents, and the original source of all the
mischief[53]. Middleton, in his "_Agriculture of Middlesex_,"
speaking of the Plant-louse that is so injurious to the bean, tells
us that the lady-birds are supposed either to generate or to feed
upon them[54]. Had he been an entomologist, he would have been in no
doubt whether they were beneficial or injurious: on the contrary, he
would have recommended that they should be encouraged as friends
to man, since no insects are greater devourers of the Aphides. The
confounding of the apple Aphis (_A. lanigera, Myzoxyla?_[55]) that
has done such extensive injury to our orchards, with others, has led
to proceedings still more injurious. This is one of those species
from the skin of which transpires a white cottony secretion. Some
of the proprietors of orchards about Evesham, observing an insect
which secreted a similar substance upon the poplar, imagined that
from this tree the creature which they had found so noxious was
generated; and in consequence of this mistaken notion cut down all
their poplars[56]. The same indistinct ideas might have induced them
to fell all their larches and beeches, since they also are infested
by Aphides which transpire a similar substance. Had these persons
possessed any entomological knowledge, they would have examined and
compared the insects before they had formed their opinions, and being
convinced that the poplar and apple Aphis are distinct species, would
have saved their trees.