A-i- OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 



fleet of their own ducklings launch into the water* !" 

 and like the preceding class, they collect valuable ma- 

 terials for the use of more active labourers, being thus 

 at least upon a par with the majority of book-collectors 

 and antiquaries. 



But this is the smallest half of the value of their pur- 

 suit. With what view is the study of the mathematics 

 so generally recommended ? Not certainly for any prac- 

 tical purpose — not to make the bulk of those who attend 

 to them, astronomers or engineers. But simply to ex- 

 ercise and strengthen the intellect — to give the mind a 

 habit of attention and of investiiration. Now for all these 

 purposes, if I do not go so far as to assert that the mere 

 ascertaining of the names of insects is equal to the study 

 of the mathematics, 1 have no hesitation in affirming 

 that it is nearly as effectual ; and with respect to giving 

 a habit of minute attention, superior. Such is the intri- 

 cacy of nature, such the imperfection of oui" present ar- 

 rangements, that the discovery of the name of almost 

 any insect is a problem, calling in all cases for acuteness 

 and attention, and in some for a balancing of evidence, 

 a calculation of the chances of error, as arduous as are 

 required in a perplexed law-case ; and a process of ratio- 

 cination not less strict than that which satisfies the ma- 

 thematician. In proof of which assertion 1 need only 

 refer any competent judge to the elaborate disquisitions 

 of Laspeyres, called for by one work alone on the lepi- 

 dopterous insects of a single district — the Wiener Ver- 

 zeic/miss, which occupy above two hundred octavo 

 pages'", and must have cost the learned author nearly 



* Letter to Dr. Wharton. Mason's Life of Graj/, p. 28. 

 Mllig. il/ffg. ii. .33. iv. ;{. 



