There, with just skill, her future work designs,

Revolves the plan, and draws the destin'd lines.

Each part she labours with repeated pain,
And often walks the circle of her reign :

Compact yet fine the curious net-work weaves,

And forms her dark retreat behind the leaves.

On prey intent, in ambuscade she lies, 'Till, 'tangld in her snare, she rushes on the prize.

The lab’ring Bee, by him instructed, knows Where op’ning flow'rs their balmy sweets disclose : The rising sun her daily task renews; Wide o'er the plains, she sips the pearly dews; From mead to mead she wanders through the skies, And yellow thyme distends her loaded thighs. Each rifl'd flower rewards her painful toil, And her full hive receives the golden spoil ;

On flagging wings each load she thither bears,

And while the summer smiles, for winter's want

prepares. Nor does the Ant with less sagacious care

Improve the bounteous seasons of the year.
Of want afraid, for what the harvest yields,
Thoughtful, she ranges through the distant fields :
No toil she spares ; but labours o'er the plain,
And sweats beneath the burden of a grain :
Though much she has, she searches still for more,
And ev'ry day adds something to her store;
With wholesome food her granaries abound,
Nor, unprepar’d, is she by freezing winter found.

How oft, O Man, by foolish pride betray'd, ) Madly hast thou presum’d, and vainly said, ' > All living things for Thee alone were made ;

Their only end thy pleasure to supply,

To live thy slaves, or for thy hamour die !

Whence springs this claim: When was this licence

[giv'n? What act ordains thee substitute of heav'n?

Does pow'r confer a right to take away

That being God bestows

P

So, had they speech, perhaps would tygers say. j
But thou, with reason, might'st, methinks, conclude,
That Heav'n, which is not only great but good,
Has nobler views in its extensive thought,
Than just to serve thy table and thy sport.

Alas! what's MAN, thus insolent and vain ?

One single link of nature's mighty chain.
Each hated toad, each crawling worm we see,

Is needful to the whole, no less than he.

Like some grand building is the UNIVERSE,

Where ev'ry part is useful in its place;
As well the pins, which all together hold,
As the rich carvings, or the glowing gold.

Why did'st thou slaughter youder harmless fly!

Because 'tis good for nothing, dost thou cry?
The same of thee, tho' now so vain and gay,
As justly might superior beings say:

said And yet thou liv'sty--to form this impious thought, And set thy maker's handy-work at nought.

With wonder view thy little world around ;

How life, in various forms, does ev'ry where abound!
Earth, water, air, with living creatures stord,
Myriads of myriads, numberless, afford :
The rising hill, the long extended plain,
The crystal dood, the briny raging main,

The flow'ry mead the corn-producing field,

The forest wide, the frightful desert wild,

The over-hanging rock, the cavern deep,
The sandy beach, the lofty mountain steep,
Swarm with inhabitants. In ev'ry clime,

The life of thousands does with food sustain.*

. * It is credible, that there are vast numbers of animals feeding on the leaves of plants, as cattle do on pastures, and which repose under the shade of a down, imperceptible to the human eye, as these do, under the umbrageous foliage of the forest. Now, as a variety of our larger animals will depasture on the same grasses, $0 may we suppose that different species of those minuter animals will congregate on the leaves of the same plant, De Saint PIERRE, a French writer, in his “ Studies of Nature," tells us that on a strawberry plant, in his window, he observed (in the course of three weeks) a multitude of insects, of at least thirty-seven species, totally distinct from each other, by their colours, their forms, and their actions. Some, he conceived, might have visited his plant to deposit their eggs, others merely to slelter themselves from the sun. Some, which stood motionless, he supposed,