Insect Architecture. 5% 



Jiave to regret also, in the present volume, the absence of that 

 most useful, but homely and unpretenclmg commodity, an 

 index, without which no work, —certainly no work of this de- 

 scription,. — ought to issue from the press. The deficiency 

 complained of is, however, in part, and only in part, supplied 

 by a copious table of contents. 



In conclusion, we beg to assure our readers, that we have 

 derived great pleasure and satisfaction from the perusal of 

 this interesting little volume, having found therein much to 

 praise, and but little, almost nothing, to find fault with. 

 Holding, as we do, with the aphorism of antiquity, that " a 

 great book is a great evil," we do not like the present work 

 at all the less for being small ; and we like it a great deal 

 more for being cheap. The extracts we have given will, we 

 trust, be more than sufficient to recommend it to the notice 

 of all those, whose minds are so constituted as to be suscept-- 

 ible of any gratification from the study of insects. 



It was with much pleasure that we learned from the conclud- 

 ing paragraph of the book, that the present volume, though 

 complete in itself, was to be followed up by a second, to be 

 entitled Insect Transformations, While we were engaged in 

 writing the above remarks, this second work made its appear- 

 ance. Exactly of a piece with its predecessor, in plan, exe^ 

 cution, and interest, it will, we doubt not, meet with the same 

 favourable reception : all that has been said in coihmendation 

 of the oi^e^ ^applies equally to the other. Here \^e Might 

 clos^ ^ur remarks, confidently trusting that such qf our readers 

 as l^aVe perused Insect Architecture will losp no time i'ri' mak- 

 ing themselves acquainted witli its twin-brother Insect Trdns- 

 formations. ^ We cam^ot, ^ however, dismiss this latter pev- 

 fc^^rnaptje without briefly noticing, a' subject presented to us 

 in the opening cliapter. In a . work of this populai^ ca'^t, a 

 work likely, to meet with so extensive a circulation aipon^ the 

 ipid41ing and even (as we, hope) among the lower classes, and 

 tp become the companion, during leisure hours, of the youth 

 of bqth sexes, it is, we think, of incalculable inipOrtance^' that 

 tjie ptmost care should be taken to excli|d*e brldisc.dnnteiiarice 

 ajl^uch false and pernicious doctrines As hkye, d tendency to 

 infuse poison into the minds of those who are entering upon 

 the innocent study of eiitomology. It is with especial satis- 

 faction, therefore, that we see Mr. Rennie, in the first chapter 

 of Insect Tra7isfo7'mations, exposing and holding up to merited 

 reprobation the monstrous theories of the modern Epicurean 

 school. We allude to the absurdities maintained by Darwin, 

 Lamarck, and others; as, for instance, that " animals arose 

 from a single filament »r threadlet of matter, which, by its 



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