Note 2 — CHAP. VI. OF THE RELATION OF ANTS WITH THE PUCERONS AND GALL INSECTS.

The more we contemplate the works of nature, and observe the means she employs in her ordinary operations, the more will our admiration be excited. Who, for one moment, could suppose, that, as in the instance before us, what is used as food by one animal, should, on its passage through the body, become the food of another, and thus discharge a double office! Who could suppose that excrementitious matter, of whatever kind, after supporting myriads of living beings, should, on undergoing decomposition, and being separated into its primary elements, enter into those several combinations, that diffuse a charming variety around us! How wise is this provision! how admirable this contrivance! Were it otherwise, we should be perpetually breathing an atmosphere, charged with noisome effluvia, and living in the very charnel-house of destruction. In the hands of nature nothing is lost; all is life and activity: even the death of one being, is but a commencement of the existence of another. Vapours raised from the sea, and floating in the upper regions of the air, collect into clouds; these, on a reduction of temperature, yield their contents to the thirsty earth: the waters, after fulfilling their appointed office, pass from the mountains by a thousand rills, into the plains; here, by their junction, they form rivers, which, taking a circuitous course, empty themselves into the ocean. Thus we see nature engaged in running a perpetual round, and the waters, after cooling the atmosphere and refreshing the earth, return to that source whence they originally sprung.—T.