"It can never be too strongly impressed upon a mind anxious
for the acquisition of knowledge, that the commonest
things by which we are surrounded are deserving of minute
and careful attention. The most profound investigations of
Philosophy are necessarily connected with the ordinary
circumstances of our being, and of the world in which our
every-day life is spent. With regard to our own existence,
the pulsation of the heart, the act of respiration, the voluntary
movement of our limbs, the condition of sleep, are
among the most ordinary operations of our nature; and yet
how long were the wisest of men struggling with dark and
bewildering speculations before they could offer anything
like a satisfactory solution of these phenomena, and how far
are we still from an accurate and complete knowledge of
them! The science of Meteorology, which attempts to
explain to us the philosophy of matters constantly before our
eyes, as dew, mist, and rain, is dependent for its illustrations
upon a knowledge of the most complicated facts, such as the
influence of heat and electricity upon the air; and this
knowledge is at present so imperfect, that even these common
occurrences of the weather, which men have been observing
and reasoning upon for ages, are by no means satisfactorily
explained, or reduced to the precision that every science
should aspire to. Yet, however difficult it may be entirely to comprehend the phenomena we daily witness, everything
in nature is full of instruction. (...)
This train of reasoning is peculiarly applicable to the
economy of insects. They constitute a very large and
interesting part of the animal kingdom. They are everywhere
about us. The spider weaves his curious web in our
houses; the caterpillar constructs his silken cell in our
gardens; the wasp that hovers over our food has a nest not
far removed from us, which she has assisted to build with the
nicest art; the beetle that crawls across our path is also an
ingenious and laborious mechanic, and has some curious
instincts to exhibit to those who will feel an interest in
watching his movements; and the moth that eats into our
clothes has something to plead for our pity, for he came,
like us, naked into the world, and he has destroyed our
garments, not in malice or wantonness, but that he may
clothe himself with the same wool which we have stripped
from the sheep. An observation of the habits of these little
creatures is full of valuable lessons, which the abundance of
the examples has no tendency to diminish."
RENNIE, James. Insect Architecture. London: Bell and Daldy, 1869.
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