PREFACE. XXI 



out of mischief, and the other admitted that they 

 might furnish very pretty patterns for ladies' 

 aprons ! And though in this country things are 

 not now quite so bad as they were when Lady 

 Glanville's will was attempted to be set aside on 

 the ground of lunacy, evinced by no other act 

 than her fondness for collecting insects, and Ray 

 had to appear at Exeter on the trial as a witness 

 of her sanity*, yet nothing less than line upon 

 line can be expected to eradicate the deep-rooted 

 prejudices which prevail on this subject. " Old 

 impressions," as Reaumur has well observed, 

 " are with difficulty effaced. They are weaken- 

 ed, they appear unjust even to those who feel 

 them, at the moment they are attacked by argu- 

 ments which are unanswerable ; but the next in- 

 stant the proofs are forgotten, and the perverse 

 association resumes its empire." 



The authors do not know that any curiosity 

 will be excited to ascertain what share has been 

 contributed to the work by each of them ; but if 

 there should, it is a curiosity they must be ex- 

 cused from gratifying. United in the bonds of 

 a friendship, which, though they have to thank 

 Entomology for giving birth to it, is founded 

 upon a more solid basis than mere community of 



* See Harris's Aurelian under PapiUo Cinxin. 



