which these miners proceed. Upon rising one morning he observed that one of their galleries of the thickness of his little finger had been formed across his table; and, upon a further examination, he found that they had bored a passage of that thickness up one foot of the table, formed a gallery across it, and then pierced down another foot into the floor: all this was done in the few hours that intervened between his retiring to rest and his rising. They make their way also with the greatest ease into trunks and boxes, even though made of mahogany, and destroy papers and every thing they contain, constructing their galleries and sometimes, taking up their abode in them. Hence, as Humboldt informs us, throughout all the warmer parts of equinoctial America, where these and other destructive insects abound, it is infinitely rare to find papers which go fifty or sixty years back". In one night they will devour all the boots and shoes that are left in their way; cloth, linen, or books are equally to their taste; but they will not eat cotton, as Captain Green informs me, I myself have to deplore that they entirely consumed a collection of insects made for me by a friend in India, more especially as it sickened him of the employment. In a word, scarcely any thing, as I said before, but metal or stone comes amiss to them. Mr. Smeathman relates, that a party of them once took a fancy to a pipe of fine old Madeira, not for the sake of the wine, almost the whole of which they let out, but of the staves, which however I suppose were strongly imbued with it, and perhaps on that account were not less to the taste of our epicure Termites. Having left a Jupan, ii, 127.

b Political Essay on New Spain, iv. 135.

a compound microscope in a warehouse at Tobago for a few months, on his return he found that a colony of a small species of white ant had established themselves in it, and had devoured most of the wood-work, leaving little besides the metal and glasses. A shorter period sufficed for their demolition of some of Mr. Forbes's furniture. On surveying a room which had been locked up during an absence of a few weeks, he observed a number of advanced works in various directions towards some prints and drawings in English frames ; the glasses appeared to be uncommonly dull, and the frames covered with dust. "On attempting," says he, "to wipe it off, I was astonished to find the glasses fixed to the wall, not suspended in frames as I left them, but completely surrounded by an incrustation cemented by the white ants, who had actually eaten up the deal frames and back-boards, and the greater part of the paper, and left the glasses upheld by the incrustation, or covered way, which they had formed during their depredation"." It is even asserted that the superb residence of the Governor-General at Calcutta, which cost the East India Company such immense sums, is now rapidly going to decay in conse quence of the attacks of these insects -But not content with the dominions they have acquired, and the cities they have laid low on Terra Firma, encouraged by success the white ants have also aimed at the sovereignty of the ocean, and once had the hardihood to attack even a British ship of the line; and in spite of

a This account of the Termites is chiefly taken from Smeathman in Philos. Trans. 1781, and Percival's Ceylon, 307—.

b Oriental Memoirs, i. 302.

e Morning Herald, Dec. 31st, 1814.

the efforts of her commander and his valiant crew, having boarded they got possession of her, and handled her so roughly, that when brought into port, being no longer fit for service, she was obliged to be broken upa.

And here, I think, I see you throw aside my papers, and hear you exclaim-“ Will this enumeration of scourges, plagues, and torments never be finished? Was the whole insect race created merely with punitive views, and to mar the fair face of universal nature? Are they all, as our Saviour said figuratively of one genus, the scorpion, the powerful agents and instruments of the great enemy of mankind"?" If you view the subject in another light, you will soon, my : friend, be convinced that, instead of this, insects gene-rally answer the most beneficial ends, and promote in various ways, and in an extraordinary degree, the welfare of man and animals; and that the series of evils I have been engaged in enumerating mostly occur partially, and where they exceed their natural limits; God permitting this occasionally to take place, not merely with punitive views, but also to show us what mighty effects he can produce by instruments seemingly the most insignificant: thus calling upon us to glorify his power, wisdom, and goodness, so evidently manifested whether he relaxes or draws tight the reins by which

a The ship here alluded to was the Albion, which was in such a condition from the attack of insects, supposed to be white ants, that, had pot the ship been firmly lashed together, it was thought she would have foundered on her voyage home. Mr. Kittoe ipforms me that the Droguers or Draguers, a kind of lighter employed in the West Indies in collecting the sugar, sometimes so swarm with ants, of the common kind, that they have no other way of getting rid of these troublesome insects than by sink ing the vessel in shallow water.

b Luke

19.

he guides insects in their course, and regulates their progress; and more particularly to acknowledge his overruling Providence so conspicuously exhibited by his measuring them, as it were, and weighing them, and telling them out, so that, their numbers, forces and powers being annually proportioned to the work he has prescribed to them, they may neither exceed his purpose nor fall short of it.

From the picture I have drawn, and I assure you it is not overcharged, you will be disposed to admit, however, the empire of insects over the works of creation, and to own that our prosperity, comfort and happiness are intimately connected with them; and consequently that the knowledge and study of them may be extremely useful and necessary to promote these desirable ends, since the knowledge of the cause of any evil is always a principal, if not an indispensable, step towards a remedy.

I shall now bid adieu to this unpromising subject, which has so long occupied my pen, and I fear wearied your attention, and in my next bring before you a more agreeable scene, in which you will behold the benefits we receive by the ministry of insects.

I am, &c.

LETTER IX.

BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS.

INDIRECT BENEFITS.

My last letters contained, I must own, a most melancholy though not an overcharged picture of the injuries and devastation which man, in various ways, experiences through the instrumentality of the insect world. In this and the following I hope to place before you a more agreeable scene, since in them I shall endeavour to point out in what respects these minute animals are made to benefit us, and what advantages we reap from their extensive agency.

God, in all the evil which he permits to take place, whether spiritual, moral, or natural, has the ultimate good of his creatures in view. The evil that we suffer is often a countercheck which restrains us from greater evil, or a spur to stimulate us to good: we should therefore consider every thing, not according to the present sensations of pain, or the present loss or injury that it occasions, but according to its more general, remote, and permanent effects and bearings;-whether by it we are not impelled to the practice of many virtues which otherwise might lie dormant in uswhether our moral habits are not improved-whether we are not rendered by it more prudent, cautious, and wary, more watchful to prevent evil, more ingenious