"with the Fishes and Reptiles; What can we "fay for them? Has Nature been as boun-, "tiful to them as to the reft, must we al"low them to have Speech and Understand"ing? Can they understand and converse with "each other? Can we imagine a Conversation "betwixt two Fishes, two Ants, or two "Worms? The Birds indeed fing, the Dogs "bark, the Wolves howl, Sheep bleat, Lions

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roar, Oxen low, Horses neigh; this every

body hears and knows but who ever heard "the Language of a Fish, or the Converfa"tions of Worms and Caterpillars? Whatever Difficulty there may be in hearing or explaining their Language, I think there can "be but little in apprehending they have one,

upon the fame general Principles laid down "before; and fince there is a ftrong Prefump"tion that all other Species have it, as arifing " from the Neceffity of their Nature; the Pre

fumption feems equally ftrong for them as "for the reft. But the Difficulty lies in be"ing able to know and diftinguish it, part "of them live in an Element forbidden to

us, and many of the others escape our Sight

by their smallness. But how do we know "that Fishes have not as many and perhaps

more vocal Expreffions than the Birds them"felves? They all of them feem to be form"ed upon the fame Model? Some fly, others "fwim; but flying and fwimming are one "and the fame Motion, the Difference is only " in the Element. We are told in the Book "of

"of Genefis, ch. i. v. 20. that God created at "the fame time both Fishes and Fowls from

the Bofom of the Waters. Fishes have five "Senfes as well as Birds and other Animals, " and why should they not have the Faculty "of Speaking as well as the reft? It is true, we cannot hear them fpeak or fing, but it is perhaps for want of proper Organs to hear them. The Water is throughly penetrated' with Air which the Fishes breathe, Why may they not with that Air, and by means of a Spring equivalent to the Tongue and Throat, form Vibrations and Sounds too nice and de"licate for our Ears, but which are easily heard and understood by their own Species? The Ear of Man is extremely coarfe, which is the result of a neceffary Providence; for were our Ears fenfible of the minutest Vibrations of the Air we live in, we should be for << ever stunned with a thousand confufed Noifes,' which would never permit us to distinguish any one of them. There are then certainly in the Air many Sounds which we do not "hear; fuch as, for inftance, the Noife of a Silk-Worm gnawing a Mulberry Leaf; if he is alone, or there are but few of them together, no body can hear them: but put a << a certain Number of them in a Cabinet, and "then all thofe little Noifes joined in unifon, "become mighty fenfible to our Ears. "much more is it poffible, that there may be 66 in the Water Noifes infenfible to us, and that "Fishes may by that means fpeak, without

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being audible to us at least I delight in "thinking fo, not to rob any part of the Cre"ation of thofe Perfections which Nature uses

to beftow on all nor could I think, without a kind of philofophical Melancholy, "that she had doomed to eternal Silence, inડર્ટ numerable Nations, which inhabit the Im

menfity of the Seas and Rivers. Silence is "the Portion of the Dead; Speaking enlivens "the Living themselves. You may laugh, and "be as merry as you pleafe upon my fpeak"ing Fish, as doubtlefs he was laughed at that "first mentioned a flying Fish, and yet the "one may chance to prove as true as the "other.

"The Reptiles and Infects are just in the "fame Cafe. There are many kinds of Rep"tiles which have very diftinct vocal Ex"preffions; fuch as Serpents, Frogs, and Toads: "and confequently, arguing upon the Principle "of the Uniformity of Nature, we are inti"tled to suppose an Equivalent in the rest; "not to mention fupplemental Miens, Looks, "and Geftures. It is not quite fo with the "Infects: there is no Species of them, that we know of, that has vocal Expreffion, properly fo called: The Cry of the Cricket, the finging or chirping of the Grafhopper, the "Noife of certain Butterflies, and the hum"ming of Flies, are not properly vocal Sounds, "but Noifes caufed by the trembling of a "Membrane. But what of all that? It can"not be doubted, but that the Cry of the "Cricket

"Cricket and Grafhopper, ferves them to call "each other in order to meet, and, very likely, to converse. It may be thought that the humming of the Flies likewise serves them to know each other in every Society, either by the Uniformity or Unifon of the Tone, or imperceptible Differences not within our reach, which may be equivalent to vocal Ex"preffions, and is at the fame time a Proof, how "Nature, always uniform as to what is general and effential, is, at the fame time, ingenious in varying the Means and Particulars of "of her own Productions. Now, what Nature "has done for fome Infects, fhe has certainly "done for all.

"There is, for inftance, a particular Sort of Spiders, which have a very fingular Method "of teftifying to each other their Defire of "being together. The Spider that wants Company, ftrikes, with I know not what Inftru

ment, against the Wall or Wood where she "has fettled, nine or ten gentle Blows, nearly "like the Vibrations of a Watch, (which there"fore the Ignorant and Superftitious call a Death

watch) but a little louder and quicker; after "which she stays for an Answer: if the hears none, the repeats the fame by Intervals for "about an Hour or two, refuming this Exer

cife, and refting alternately Night and Day. "After two or three Days, if the hears no

thing, the changes her Habitation, till fhe "finds one that anfwers her. It is another Spi"der that answers her exactly in the fame manH 2 < ner,

σε ner, and, as it were, by Echo. If the latter likes the Propofal, the Converfation grows "brifker, and the beating becomes more fre

quent. Give attention to it, and you will "find by the Noife that they gradually approach each other, and that the Beatings come at last fo clofe, that they are confounded, after which you hear no more Noife; very likely the reft of the Converfation is whisper'd. I have oftentimes amused my"felf in making the Echo of a Spider, "which I have heard beating, and whose "Noise I imitated, and she answered me punc

tually; fhe fometimes even attacked me, and began the Conversation: I have often given "that Diverfion to feveral People, and made "them believe it was a familiar Spirit.

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"How many like Discoveries might we make upon Infects, if our Organs were delicate enough to fee and perceive their Airs and "Motions, to hear their Voices, or what Nature "has allotted them inftead of Voices, I make no doubt, but we should find in Ants, Bees, "Worms, Scarabæus's, Caterpillars, Palmerworms, Mites, and all the Infects, a Language defigned for their Prefervation, and the fupply of their Wants. And as there are certain Species of Infects, in which we obferve greater Industry and Knowlege than in large Animals, it is not improbable that they have like"wife a more perfect Language in proportion, "always confined however to the Neceffaries of "Life."

Thus