viii PREFACE. 



in their grand aim, that of making converts amongst their countrymen to 

 a study equally calculated for promoting the glory of God and the delight 

 and profit of man, they will not deem the labor of the leisure hours of six 

 years ill bestowed. 



And here it may be proper to observe, that one of their first and favor- 

 ite objects has been to direct the attention of their readers " from nature 

 up to nature's God." For, when they reflected upon the fatal use which 

 has too often been made of Natural History, and that from the very 

 works and wonders of God some philosophists, by an unaccountable per- 

 version of intellect, have attempted to derive arguments either against his 

 being and providence, or against the religion revealed in the Holy Scrip- 

 tures, they conceived they might render some service to the most important 

 interests of mankind, by showing how every department of the science 

 they recommend illustrates the great truths of religion, and proves that 

 the doctrines of the Word of God, instead of being contradicted, are 

 triumphantly confirmed by his Works. 



" To see all things in God,'^ has been accounted one of the peculiar 

 privileges of a future state ; and in this present life, " to see God in all 

 things,''^ in the mirror of the creation to behold and adore the reflected 

 glory of the Creator, is no mean attainment ; and it possesses this advan- 

 tage, that thus we sanctify our pursuits, and, instead of loving the crea- 

 tures for themselves, are led by the survey of them and their instincts to 

 the love of Him who made and endowed them. 



Of their performance of the first part of their plan, in which there is 

 the least room for originality, it is only necessary for the authors to say, 

 that they have done their best to make it as comprehensive, as interesting, 

 and as useful as possible : but it is requisite to enter somewhat more fully 

 into what has been attempted in the anatomical, physiological, and tech- 

 nical parts of the work. 



As far as respects the general physiology and internal anatomy of 

 insects, they have done little more than bring together and combine the 

 observations of the naturalists who have attended to these branches of 

 the science ; but the external anatomy they have examined for themselves 

 through the whole class, and, they trust, not without some new light being 

 thrown upon the subject ; particularly by pointing out and giving names 

 to many parts never before noticed. 



In the Terminology, or what, to avoid the barbarism of a word com- 

 pounded of Latin and Greek, they would beg to call the Orismology of 

 the science, they have endeavored to introduce throughout a greater degree 

 of precision and concinnity, dividing it into general and partial Oris- 



