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through different and disronnerted volumes. So much have I felt this 

 want for others, and for myself in my earlier studies," that I have ven- 

 tured to commence the preparation of a work which, to the best of my 

 judgment and ability, shall meet this demand. The first installment of 

 this work, enbracing a concise outline of the structure of insects, and a 

 distribution of them according to their habits and the nature of their 

 food, and continued so far as to include the wliole of the first great 

 order of insects, or that of the Colcoptera, or beetles, is now nearly 

 completed, and will be published in connection with my next annual re- 

 port if an appropriation can be obtained sufficient to pay for the tigures 

 necessary to illustrate it. It will be my aim to give that general knowl- 

 edge of insects which underlies their practical treatment, and to describe 

 as plainly and concisely as possible those principles which conduct to 

 the scientific treatment of the subject. (Such a work can not be made 

 to include many practical details without being too bulky, and this is not 

 necessary, because we already have these details in the practical reports 

 which have been published, or which are now being published in this 

 and other states ; and which are easily obtainable either gratuitously, or 

 at a price Avhich is little more than nominal in proportion to their intrin- 

 sic value.) Such a work may have, indirectly, a practical value which 

 we cannot now fully realize, by inviting into this field of labor many 

 young and enijuiring minds which might otherwise be deterred by the 

 difficulties which they would meet at the outset. 



I .should be pleased to describe my plan more fully to you, but the 

 plan itself is as yet but partially matured, and I have already trespassed 

 too long upon your time. 1 will close therefore with one more remark. 



Mr. Edward Newman, a respectable English entomologist, in his 

 little work published many years ago, entitled : " A Grammar of Ento- 

 mology " — commences his preface with the following remarks : — 



" Teacher.s in .science are nearly equally divided into two classes : those who know 

 too much, and those who know loo iiule. Tiiose of the first class, overloaded with sci- 

 ence, cannot admit the possibility of meelint; with readers who have none, and therefore 

 .their essays and introductions are so worded that it requires a tolerable ])roticiency to 

 understand them. The teachers of the second class fall into the opposite error ; they 

 curtail, garble, and popularize the writings of others without understanding them, for- 

 getful that it requires a consummate knowledge of any science to abridge a work which 

 treats of it ably, and at large." 



If I should be so fortunate as to be able to pursue a middle course 

 between these two extremes, I should have occasion both for your, and 

 my own congratulation. 



In the discourse that I have just read, it will have been observed 

 that I have been discussing more particularly the teaching of the ele- 

 ments of the natural sciences to those young persons, either in school 

 or out of it, who may have a taste for such pursuits, and upon whom 

 the treatment of this subject, in its practical as well as its scientific as- 

 pects, will hereafter devolve. In doing this, I have not been able, 

 without making my address too long, to treat of the directly practical 

 application of this subject. I have endeavored to show that instruction 



