j32 NORTH AMERICAN INSECTS. 



ry and scientific, the artist, the agriculturist and man- 

 ufacturer, the statesman and politician, as well as for 

 the independent and disinterested boldness with which 

 it seeks to protect the wronged and oppressed, the 

 poor and the friendless ; distinguished in fact, as being 

 a real Encyclopedia of the present history of the world 

 of Art, Industry, Science, and Politics. 



Now, the deplorable ignorance that so universally 

 prevails with regard to Natural History, arises not 

 from any deficiency of genius in the American people, 

 but it arises from the fact, that our Schools, Colleges, 

 and so called Universities, which are the leaders and 

 guides of general education, almost entirely neglect 

 this department of Science. Hardly any of our Insti- 

 tutions of Learning, except Cambridge, have regular 

 Professors of this branch, and except Princeton, in 

 New Jersey, very few, if any, have Cabinets of Natu- 

 ral Histpry, and none have a sufficient number of books 

 treating upon this subject, to form a library. True, in 

 the catalogues of our numerous Colleges, we always 

 find advertised among the Faculty — 

 " N. N., Professor of Chemistry and Natural History," or 

 " L. S., " Natural Philosophy and i: » or 



" B. M.. " Mathematics and « . 



But, if one of these omnivorous Professors undertakes 

 to teach both the departments affixed to his name, de- 

 partments which are as different as the trades of a tan- 



