276 Bibliographical Notices. 



fessor of Berlin in the perpendicular dimension of his work, he cer- 

 tainly shows himself determined to expand most portentously in a 

 horizontal direction. Thus the present volume is the first of a first 

 series of te?i ; it contains, as we have already stated, the history of 

 only twenty-four species of these little Moths ; and as, according to 

 his own statements, there are now known no fewer than six hundred 

 species of Tineina, we may presume that the work, when complete, 

 will extend to at least five-and-twenty volumes, — a small library in 

 itself. 



The process by which Mr. Stainton proposes to fill this enormous 

 space is the same as that adopted by Prof. Ehrenberg for the same 

 purpose, but he has improved upon the original notion. Ehrenberg 

 wrote his book in three languages, German, French and Latin, pro- 

 bably neglecting the English as unworthy of his notice ; but Mr. 

 Stainton, writing for the world in general, but for Englishmen in par- 

 ticular, has naturally added English to his list of languages, and his 

 book appears as though intended for the original builders of Babel 

 before they had had time to learn each other's dialects. "We are 

 aware that there are such things as Polyglot Bibles, and doubtless 

 theological students may find them advantageous in giving dif- 

 ferent readings of the same passage ; but no such benefit would 

 attend the publication of Biblia Nature on the same principle, and 

 considering the stature to which they might attain in one language, 

 we have no wish to see them published in half a dozen. 



In Ehrenberg' s case there was indeed some excuse for the adoption 

 of this plan, as he was putting forth new and startling views, of the 

 truth of which, false as they have since been proved, he probably 

 entertained no doubt, and he might therefore be forgiven, if, with 

 the view of removing every chance of ignorance of facts which he 

 justly thought would change the face of science, he rendered his 

 work more voluminous than it might otherwise have been. But in 

 the present work we can see no such pressing necessity for a polyglot 

 text, whilst, on the other hand, its disadvantages are sufficiently 

 obvious. The bulk of the work is increased to more than four times 

 what is necessary, and we feel convinced that by this expenditure 

 of labour Mr. Stainton will not add greatly to the number of his 

 readers. In the present case any continental entomologist, who, 

 to apply the popular classification of gentlemen, is an entomologist, 

 ought certainly to possess sufficient English to enable him to read 

 this book ; and as for those who are in the opposite predicament, we 

 suspect it will not be easy to make them believe that there can come 

 any good thing out of England. 



It may be thought that these remarks are somewhat ungracious, 

 inasmuch as Mr. Stainton tells us in his preface that this multiplica- 

 tion of the work adds nothing to its price, which merely represents 

 the cost of the plates, and that the book would not have cost a 

 farthing less, if not only the foreign text, but the whole of the letter- 

 press had been suppressed ; and truly entomologists have to thank 

 Mr. Stainton for this liberality ; but our object in the above observa- 

 tions has been to put it fairly before the author, whether, if he designs 

 making a present to the entomological world, it might not be possible 



