PREFACE. IX 



peared the year after ; and Barbut's Genera Insec- 

 torum^ which came out in 1781 — the two former 

 in too unattractive, and the latter in too expen- 

 sive a form for general readers — are the only- 

 works professedly devoted to this object, which 

 the English language can boast. 



Convinced that this was the chief obstacle to 

 the spread of Entomology in Britain, the authors 

 of the present work resolved to do what was in 

 their power to remove it, and to introduce their 

 countrymen to a mine of pleasure, new, bound- 

 less, and inexhaustible, and which, to judge from 

 their own experience — formed in no contracted 

 field of comparison — they can recommend as pos- 

 sessing advantages and attractions equal to those 

 held forth by most other branches of human 

 learning. 



The next question was, in what way they should 

 attempt to accomplish this intention. If they had 

 contented themselves with the first suo^pfestion that 

 presented itself, and merely given a translation 

 of one of the many Introductions to Entomology 

 extant in Latin, German and French, adding 

 only a fev/ obvious improvements, their task would 

 have been very easy ; but the slightest examina- 

 tion showed that, in thus proceeding, they would 

 have stopped far short of the goal which they 

 were desirous of reaching. — In the technical de- 



