of Mr. Swainson and Mr. Newman. 43 



lately as July last *, ought to secure me from the suspicion 

 of being wedded to any of these dictatorial systems, which 

 conveniently contrive that where gaps occur in their hypo- 

 theses the creatures are yet to be found that must fill them, 

 and where inconvenient redundancies exist in Nature, these 

 are made to merge in groups to which they have no osten- 

 sible affinity. To such systems may be applied the judicious 

 observations of the reviewer of Goethe's ' Theory of Colours f :' 

 they *^ intentionally obscure what they cannot illustrate, and 

 " affect to be profound when they are only disguising their ig- 

 ^^ norance.'' I have not even faith in the Septenary system J, 

 although that is illuminated by the seven golden candlesticks § 

 of Solomon's temple ||, and has found in the sabbath an hebdo- 

 madal repose from the labours of such crude concoctions^, 

 but of which Burmeister said, " what is good in it is not new, 

 and what is new is not good,'' and this has since been re- 

 peated here by a very courteous friend** of the author of 

 the system. Trusting that this appeal to your candour and 

 sense of justice will not be in vain, I subscribe myself, gen- 

 tlemen. 



Your very obedient servant, 



W. E. Shuckard. 



31 Robert Street, Chelsea, Feb. 4, 1841. 



* At the conckision of the * Monograph of the Dorylidae,' where I said, 

 "The object I have pursued in studying Natural History has been to ascer- 

 tain facts, or in their absence the closest possible approximation to them ; for 

 I am sure, to use the words of our great bard, 



* Nature is made better by no mean. 

 But Nature makes that mean.' 

 And she is too protean in her disguises to be fitted by any boddice we may 

 choose to invest her with." 



t Edin. Review, Oct. 1840, p. 141. 



I Sphinx vespiformis, hy Edward 'Newman. London. 8vo. 1832. 



§ Were I disposed to cavil at such a display as the adduction of these 

 numbers, made evidently in good earnest, and not sportively, for really it 

 v/ould have been too profane to have cited Scriptm-e in jest, I might ob- 

 ject to the incorrectness of the Se{)tenary's attribution of seve^i candlesticks 

 to Solomon's temple ; for they consisted of ten, five being placed on the right 

 side and five on the left of the oracle (an argument in favour of the quina- 

 rians!), and Moses's single candlestick had but six branches, although, it is 

 true, seven lamps were suspended from it; but seven candlesticks occur only 

 in the vision of St. John at Patmos, which shows what a fantastical affair 

 a system founded upon these seven candlesticks must be. I trust that when 

 the * Septenary dreams again, his revelation will be more pertinent than it 

 is in the present instance. 



II Sphinx vesp/formis, by Edward Newman. London. 8vo. 1832. Page 15. 

 ^ Wiogmann's Archiv. vol. i. No. 4. 



** Westwood's Introduction to the Classification of Insects, vol. i. p. 20. 



