112 



vation, which has been trained to seize upon differences 

 amongst the objects of our common experience, to 

 balance the importance of generic and specific charac- 

 ters, as tested in the acquisitions of our daily walks ; 

 and which has been gradually brightened and matured 

 by the habitual exercise of its judgment on the most 

 trifling phenomena around us, has usually gained strength 

 enough to form conclusions from such data, which will 

 not only stand the test of analysis, but will be free from 

 those eccentricities of genius which too often mar the 

 speculations of less practical naturalists. The mind, 

 moreover, having been chained and fettered for a season 

 to the mere detail of facts, breaks forth, under such cir- 

 cumstances, with all the vigour with which the contempla- 

 tion of truth has gifted it, and takes its flight as it were 

 to a clearer sky; and, though a reaction may at times 

 set in, hurrying it away into regions beyond its sphere, 

 it will assuredly return at length, fraught with the 

 soberness which its vocation has inspired, and commence 

 to build up its hypotheses, step by step, in harmony 

 with the material which it has amassed. 



Yet though entomologists may be in reality as well 

 qualified as any other natural historians for drawing 

 general conclusions from the result of their researches, 

 it is impossible to conceal the fact, that, as a body, they 

 have not ordinarily done so. Whether this has hap- 

 pened through an accidental disinclination on their part 

 to occupy themselves in such matters, or (which is more 

 probable) from their whole time having been engrossed 



