47 



LETTER 11. 



OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 



In my last I gave you a general view of the science of Entomology, and 

 endeavored to prove to you that it possesses attractions and beauty suffi- 

 cient to reward any student who may profess himself its votary. I am 

 now to consider it in a less alluring light, as a pursuit attended by no 

 small degree of obloquy, in consequence of certain objections thought to 

 be urged with great force against it. To obviate these, and remove every 

 scruple from your mind, shall be the business of the present letter. 



Two principal objections are usually alleged with great confidence against 

 the study and pursuit of insects. By some they are derided as trifling 

 and unimportant, and deemed an egregious waste of time and talents ; by 

 others they are reprobated as unfeeling and cruel, and as tending to harden 

 the heart. 



I. I shall begin with the first of these objections — that the entomologist 

 is a mere trifler. As for the silly outcry and abuse of the ignorant 

 vulgar, who are always ready to laugh at what they do not understand, 

 and because insects are minute objects conclude that the study of them 

 must be a childish pursuit, 1 shall not waste words upon what I so cor- 

 dially despise. But since even learned men and philosophers, from a 

 partial and prejudiced view of the subject, having recourse to this common- 

 place logic, are sometimes disposed to regard all inquiry into these minutiae 

 of nature as useless and idle, and the mark of a little mind ; to remove 

 such prejudice and misconceptions I shall now dilate somewhat upon the 

 subject of Cui hono ? 



When we see many wise and learned men pay attention to any par- 

 ticular department of science, we may naturally conclude that it is on 

 account of some profit and instruction which they foresee may be derived 

 from it ; and therefore in defending Entomology I shall first have recourse 

 to the argumcntum ad verecundiam, and mention the great names that 

 have cultivated or recommended it. 



We may begin the list with the first man that ever lived upon the earth, 

 for we are told that he gave a name to every living creature^ amongst 

 which insects must be included ; and to give an appropriate name to an 

 object necessarily requires some knowledge of its distinguishing properties. 

 Indeed one of the principal pleasures and employments of the paradisiacal 

 state was probably the study of the various works of creation.^ Before 

 the fall the book of nature was the Bible of man, in which he could read 

 the perfections and attributes of the invisible Godhead^ and in it, as in a 

 mirror, behold an image of the things of the spiritual world. Moses also 

 appears to have been conversant with our little animals, and to have 



1 Gen. ii. 19. « Linn. Fn. Suec. Prsef. " Rom. i. 19, 20. 



