however wonderful it’s conclufions, would ever have arrived at.
It was mere curiofity that put Sir Thomas Millington upon examining
the minute parts o f flowers; but his difeoveries have-
produced the moll perfedl and molt ufeful fyftern o f botany that
the world has yet feen.
“ Other inftanees might be produced to prove, that bare curiofity
in one age is the fource o f the greateft utility in another; and
what has frequently been faid o f chymifts, may be applied to-
every other kind o f vertuofi. They hunt, perhaps, after-
chimeras and impoflibilities; they find Ibmething really valuable
by the bye. We are but inftruments under the Supreme Direflor,
and do not fo much as know, in many cafes, what is o f mofl
importance for us to fearch after but we may be fure o f one
thing, viz. that i f we ftudy and follow nature, whatever paths we
are led into, we lhall at laft arrive at fomething valuable to our-
felves and others,' but o f what kind we muft be content to.
remain ignorant.”
C H A P . VI.
G iving some A ccount op the A natomical Structure
OF THE COSSUS, OR C A T E R P IL L A R , WHICH IS FOUND IN
the T runk of the W illow-; and several other
miscellaneous O bjects.'
OF all the modifications o f which matter is fufceptible, the
moll noble is undoubtedly the organization thereof. In
the ftrufture o f animals, the Sovereign Wifdom is exhibited to
us in the moll linking manner. The body of an animal is a little
particular fyftern, more or lefs complicated, and which, like the
fyftem of the univerfe at large, is the refult o f the combination
and connection o f a multitude o f different pieces, which all con-
fpire to produce one general effeft, the manifeftationof the principle
which we term life. So wonderful are thefe combinations,
that we are incapable o f comprehending, or even o f admiring
fufficiently, the aftonilhing apparatus o f fprings, levers, counterweights,
o f tubes o f different diameters, &c. which conftitute thefe
organical machines. The interior parts o f the infeâ, the mofl
vile in appearance, would abforb all the powers o f the moft able
anatomift. He would be loft in the.labyrinth as foon as he attempted
to explore all it’s windings. A truth that will be evident
; R r 1 to