Scientific Reviews. 29 



plough and the steam-engine mil probably do more towards en- 

 suring prosperity and a name among nations, to a people who, leav- 

 ing the mountains, shall descend to cultivate and build cities on the 

 banks of the Maranon and its tributary streams, than the search for 

 diamonds or the toil for gold ; and the pages that record the exist- 

 ence and dissolution of mighty empires in the east, that contain the 

 rise and fall of the islands and littoral countries of western Europe, 

 may be read, in future times, in European languages, by a crowded 

 population on the banks of the Orinoko, the Plata, or the " Mara- 

 non," that which " is not the sea." 



Illustrations of British Entomology. By J. F. Stephens, F.L.S. 

 &c. Nos,I—XXXL 



In remarking upon the study of those classes of plants which 

 possess an incomplete organization, we were led to consider how 

 much the success of such minute branches of study depended on the 

 resolute enthusiasm with which some superior men have devoted 

 themselves to their pursuit. In England, and we are sorry that we 

 cannot say in Great Britain, the last few years have marked an era 

 in entomological science — its elements have been exposed in the 

 most alluring, and, at the same time, most lasting manner — a philo- 

 sophy, which originated in considerations on the affinities of insects, 

 has been so lofty as to affect other more important branches of na- 

 tural history, and in contemplating these gigantic strides of an infant 

 science, or reviewing the innumerable additions made to our indi- 

 genous list, and the clear systematic arrangement which they have 

 undergone, we are tempted to think that the wheels of science, 

 like those of travelling vehicles, are fast quitting the rough roads 

 rolled over by their predecessors, to glide forward with the speed 

 and intensity only attainable from the combined power of rail-road 

 celerity and fatigueless steam. It only now remains for the industri- 

 ous entomologist to continue the impulse given by extending the 

 boundaries of discovery in every possible direction, and increasing its 

 conquests, by disseminating information, and rendering the facts 

 more easily accessible, that its progress may be better appreciated. 

 Eminently calculated for this object is Mr. Stephens's " Illustra- 

 tions," affording every facility to the student of British entomology, 

 and every way adapted to keep the science in that elevated rank which 

 the labours of our own countrymen, and the no less successful ener- 

 gies of the talented contineiital entomologists, have deservedly 

 placed it. The work further affords excellent data for the few re- 

 marks we have made upon the additional number of indigenous 

 species, which came to our knowledge, as a natural result of the 

 new attention which was given to a science at which some, who 

 could not understand, had learnt to laugh, and have lived to see 



