to signalize him only as an object of pity or 

 contempt. Even if lie have no other aim than 

 self-gratification, yet " the sternest stoic of us all 

 wishes at least for some one to enter into his views 

 and feelings, and confirm him in the opinion 

 which he entertains of himself:" but how can 

 he look for sympathy in a pursuit unknown to 

 the world, except as indicative of littleness of 

 mind^? 



Yet such are the genuine charms of this branch 

 of the study of nature, that here as well as on the 

 continent, where, from being equally slighted. 

 Entomology now divides the empire with her 

 sister Botany, this obstacle would not have been 

 sufficient to deter numbers from the study, had 

 not another more powerful impediment existed — 

 the want of a popular and comprehensive Intro- 

 duction to the science. While elementary books 

 on Botany have been multiplied amongst us with- 

 out end and in every shape, Curtis's translation of 

 the Fundamaita Entomologies, published in 1772 ; 

 Yeats's Institutions of Entomoiogi/, which ap- 



^ It is with no slight degree of satisfaction that the authors 

 of tlie present work observe the progress the science it recom- 

 mends has made in the public estiitiation since the first publi- 

 cation of this volume : so that the complaint made in the above 

 paragraph must now be regarded as applicable only to a former 

 state of the science. 



