Ill 



CHAPTER V. 



GEOLOGICAL REFLECTIONS. 



WE frequently hear it asserted, that, since the members 

 of the Insecta are so numerous and minute, when com- 

 pared with those of other departments of the organic 

 world, the entomologist, whose province it is to collect 

 and classify them, can have but little time, if he attempt 

 the real advancement of his particular science, for ge- 

 neralizations on a broad scale. Now, whilst there is 

 necessarily some reason in this remark (for the investiga- 

 tion of species is a work of such labour and drudgery 

 that it is apt to monopolize all the leisure hours which 

 the greater number of us are able to command), we 

 should recollect, on the other hand, that the soundest 

 theorists have ever been the most patient and accurate 

 observers ; and have, many of them, spent whole years 

 of their lives as humble students in Nature's domain. 

 We need not be afraid that an occupation amongst 

 what is microscopically small is liable to cramp the 

 mind, and render it unfit for wider processes of induc- 

 tion, since the very opposite of this would seem to come 

 nearer to the truth. The understanding which has 

 been well tutored by a system of close and steady obser- 



