xxiv Explanation of the Plates. wider than a right one. A. An open Flower. 8. The Petals or Leaves of the Flower. 2. The Piftil, the Top of which is a long Pipe, and its Bottom in the Heart of the Flower is a Capfule containing the Seed. 3. The Tops, containing a refinous Duft, they are fuftained by the Threads or Chives. B. The Tulip with its Chives higher than the Piftil. C. The Crown Imperial. 4. The Tops. 5. The Pifiils longer than the Chives. D. The Lily, with its Piftil longer than the Chives. E. One of the Pistils that cover the Bottom of the Sun-flower, containing one Seed toward the Bottom. 6. A brown Bag full of a yellow Duft. 7. The Tube of the Piftil perforated with feveral little Holes. 8. Part of the little Bell that encompaffes the Bottom of the brown Bag; this Figure fhews it as it is by a Microscope. All the Veffels are here reprefented larger than Nature. INSECT S. INSECTS. Count. DIALOGUE I The Count DE JON VAL, I F we intend to take our ufual Walk, it is Chevalier. Here's the Prior come very seasonably to make one of the Party. Prior. Gentlemen, I invite you to take the Air and amuse yourselves in the Garden. We must turn the Chevalier out of this Clofet, where I always find him. Would not one be apt to fay, it was fome Poft given him to make good? Chevalier. I am always uneafy to leave it. The Count has filled this and the two next Apartments with so many Curiofities, that one can never be tired with beholding them. Count. Do you think fo, Sir? No, Paris, from whence you come, is the Place where you must look for Objects to please your Eyes: Here you will meet with nothing but plain Nature. Chevalier. She is a thousand times more engaging than all the Glitter and Gildings of Paris. We are foon weary of feeing always the fame things; but here is a furprizing Variety. I believe, there is nothing brought from the four Quarters of the World, but what may be feen in this VOL. I. B - Place. Place. The Count, among other things, muft needs have collected Animals of every Species one can imagine. Some of them are of Nature's Creation, perfectly well dried and preferved; others are to be seen here in Pictures at least. But nothing gives me more Pleasure than this Multitude of little Creatures, who are living; fome are working in the Window under a Glafs Hive; others fpin, or employ themselves after their manner, in chrystal Veffels. How delightful it is to live in the Country! it daily produces fomething new. Count. Every Perfon has a particular manner of thinking: The Army, and the bufy Scenes of Life, have taught me to value Retirement; it pleases me, and has made me pass a great deal of my Time very much to my Satisfaction; this Variety of Amusements renders it agreeable, and, I may even fay, advantageous to me, but a Gentleman of your Age has feldom an Inclination to enter upon the Anatomy of an Infect; and fuch Objects as Butterflies and Silkworms, Ants and Bees, must be very languishing Entertainments for Eyes like yours. Chevalier. Since you have made me acquainted with the Ufe of magnifying Glaffes, I have feen admirable things in Infects. The fingle Head of a Fly is covered with Flowers and Diamonds; the Wing of a Gnat, which, at the first View, looks like a small white Rag, and feems deftitute of all manner of Beauty, appears, when you confider it attentively, as fmooth as a Mirror, and glows like a Rainbow. I fhall never be easy, till I have exa mined all the reft with the fame Exactness. Count. You defign then to be a Man of Singularity. But tell me, Sir, do you meet with any one who amules himself with the Study of Infects? We commonly destroy them, at least they are not much regarded. If you intend to regulate your Pleasures by mine, you will chufe a very unfashionable Model. To enjoy rational Delights, according to the gay Tafte, a Man must be charmed with the Hurry of Paris, drefs up to the Mode, fix his Choice of a fhining Equipage with a great deal of Attention, and not forget the Accomplishment of a peculiar Snuff box; the Morning must be employed in writing down the Articles ofa Collation, and,when that important Affair is dispatched, he must pass the reft of the Day in Vifits, or Play; he ought 1 ught to relifh the magic Feats of an Opera, and the fro lic Dexterities of Harlequin at a Fair. Thefe are your polite People, and this is the Turn of Mind which has nothing in it to be reproached. But to spend three Parts of the Year, like me, in the Country, and make the Study of the various Scenes of Nature one's Delight; to examine, for Inftance, the Structure of an Animal's Body, to trace a Plant from it's Original through all its Progrefs, and inform oneself, by repeated Experiments, of it's particular Usefulness; I fay, Sir, what do you think of this? Don't you find something very ruftic in fuch a Life, and a great deal of the Caft of a dreaming Philofopher? Chevalier. I conceive your Lordship's Meaning: You would give me to understand, that Men judge wrong; prize Trifles, and neglect what is truly fine and fatisfa&tory. The Defign of the Work. Count. Since you enter into my Thoughts-fo juftly, I will tell you without Referve. The View of Nature enchants me, and I find new Pleafures in it every Day, even with refpect to the minutest Objects. Let us not begin with furveying thofe immenfe Globes of Fire that roll above us, nor this Earth which unfolds fo many Treasures to our View. Let us firft confider the fmalleft Objects, we may afterwards afcend by Degrees. The Scene we behold is truly magnificent; but that which our View cannot take in at once, we may divide and enjoy by Parts. Let us begin with thefe Infects, fo much defpifed by others, but of which you are fo fond. I affure you, they infinitely delight me by their Variety, their Difpofitions, their Policy, and the wonderful Proportion of their Organs, as well as by a hundred Curiofities I obferve in them. If the Deity did not think it unworthy of himself to create them, is it beneath us to confider them? But when we examine them in a nearer View, they afford us infinite Matter of Aftonishment. Judge, then, Sir, by what is most obvious and familiar to our Obfervation, how much that which lies concealed from our Eyes and Reafon, would furprize us, were it divested of its Veil. B 2 Infects. Every The Definition and Divifion of Infects. Every Infect, whether it flies or creeps, is a little Animal, compofed either of feveral Rings, which fhrink from or approach one another in a common Membrane that collects them; or else of feveral diftinct Scales that flide over one another; or, laftly, of two or three principal Parts, connected by a Thread they call a Ligature. Of the first fort are all Worms, as well those who have Feet, as thofe which are without them. When they would pass from one Place to another, they dilate the musculous Skin that feparates the firft Ring from the next. They advance the first Ring, whether it be near the Head or Tail, to a certain Distance; and then by contracting and expanding the Skin of that Part, they move the second Ring; the fame Effort draws the third, and fo the whole Body marches in Succeffion. In this manner those little Animals, even without Feet, move and transfer themfelves where they please; rife out of the Earth, and retire into it at the Appearance of the least Danger, and advance and retreat as need requires. Of the fecond fort are Flies and May.birds, befides an infinite Variety of others, whofe Body is an Affemblage of many little Scales, which dilate by unfolding themselves or contract by fliding over one another, like Braffets or Cuiffes in our old Suits of Armour. Chevalier. Your Lordship has fhewn me several of them in your Wardrobe. Count. Of the third fort are Ants, Spiders, and feveral others, that you fee divided into two or three Parts, which hardly appear to be connected with each other. It should feem that the Term Infect, which is appropriated to all thefe feparate Parts, Sections, and moving Rings, is de. rived from a Latin Word which fignifies, to-cut, and is applied, in general, to all thefe little Creatures Infecare, to cut, Prior. Their Minutenefs feems, at first View, to justify the Contempt we entertain of them; but, in reality, it affords us fresh Reafon to admire the Art and Mechanism of their Structure, which affociates fo many Veffels, Fluids, and Movements, in aPoint that is frequently imperceptible. Vulgar Prejudice confiders them as the Effect of Chance, or the Refufe of Nature, but an attentive Eye difcovers |