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endeavour to inveftigate this fubjeft, the more we find it is
enveloped in darknels,
Whilft the powers of life are employed conformable to the
laws o f Divine Providence, to change the vifcera, and give them a
new form, they are alfo unfolding divers other organs, which were
ufelefs to the infect while in the larva ftate, but which are
neceffary to that which iucceeds. That thefe interior operations
of life may be carried on with greater energy, the animal is
thrown into a kind o f fleep; during this period, the corpus
craffum is diftributed into all the parts, in order to bring them
to perfeftion, while the evaporation o f the fuperfluous humours
makes way for the elements -of the fibres to approach each other,
and unite more clofely. The little wounds in the infide, which
have been eccafioned by 'the rupture o f the veffels, are gradually
confolidated ; thofe .parts which had been violently exercifed,
recover their tone, and the circulating fluids infenfibly find their
new channel. Laftly, many, veffels are effaced, and turned into
a liquid fedimeni, which is rejected by the perfeft infect. r
When thefe various changes are confidered, we are furprized
a t the Angularity of the means the A u t h o r of n a t u r e has
made choice of, in order to bring the different fpecies o f animals
to perfection ; and are apt to afk, why the caterpillar was not
born a moth? why it paffes through the larva and pupa ftate?
why all infeSs -that are transformed ck> not undergo the fame
change ? Thefe, and a.variety of queftions that may be ftarted
concerning the die and efferace of thofe exiGenceS'which appear
before -us, derive their folution from the general fyftem which is
unknown to us. If all were to arrive at perfection at once, the
chain
chain would be broken, the creature unhappy, and man moft
©fall.
Amongft infe&s, fome are produced fuch as they will be
during their whole lives ; others come forth inclofed ms an egg,
and are hatched from this in a form drat admits o f no variation.;
many come into the world under a form which differs but little
from that which they have when arrived at an a g e ‘o f maturity;
fome-again affume various forms, that are| more or- lefs remote
from that which conffiitutes their perfeft ftate ; laftly, fome go-
through part o f thefe transformations in the belly of. the mother,,
and are born of an equal fize with their parent.
By thefe various changes, a Angle individual unites within-itfelf
two or three different fpecies, and becomes fucceffively the inhabitant
o f two or three w o r ld s a n d how great is the diverfity
o f it’s operation in thefe- various abodes! Let us alfo confider
what riches we fhould have been deprived ©f, if the filk-worm
had been-born in it’s perfect ftate.
Since it has been {hewn that the larva or caterpillar is really
the: moth, crawling, eating, and fpinning, under the'form of the
worm, and that the pupa is only the moth fwathed up, it is
clear that they are not three felfs, or three perfons, but that the-
fame individual feels, taftes, fees, and acls by different organs, at
different periods o f it’s life; having fenfations and wants at one
time, which.it has not at another; thefe wants and fenfations.
always bearing a relation, to the organs which excite them.
O n .