6g OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 



But if some morbid sentimentalist should still exclaim, " Oh ! but I 

 cannot persuade myself, even for scientific purposes, to inflict the slightest 

 degree of pain upon the most insensible of creatures — " Pray, sir or 

 madam, I would ask, should your green-house be infested by Aphides, or 

 your grapery by the semianimate Coccus, would this extreme of tender- 

 ness induce you to restrict your gardener from destroying them ? Are you 

 willing to deny yourselves these unnecessary gratifications, and to resign 

 your favorite flowers and fruit at the call of your fine feelings ? Or will 

 you give up the shrimps, which by their relish enable you to play a better 

 part with your bread and butter at breakfast, and thus, instead of adding 

 to it, contribute to diminish the quantity of food ? If not, I shall only 

 desire you to recollect that, for a mere personal indulgence, you cause the 

 death of an infinitely greater number of animals than all the entomologists 

 in the world destroy for the promotion of science." 



To these considerations, which I have no doubt you will think conclu- 

 sive as to the unreasonableness and inconsistency of the objections made 

 against the study of Entomology on the score of cruelty, I shall only 

 add that I do not intend them as any apology for other than the most 

 speedy and least painful modes of destroying insects. Every degree of 

 unnecessary pain becomes cruelty, which I need not assure you I abhor ; 

 and from my own observations, however ruthlessly the entomologist may 

 seem to devote the few specimens wanted for scientific purposes to destruc- 

 tion, no one in ordinary circumstances is less prodigal of insect life. For 

 my own part, I question whether the drowning individuals, which I have 

 saved from destruction, would not far out-number all that I have ever sacri- 

 ficed to science. 



My next letter will be devoted to the metamorphoses of insects, a 

 subject on which some previous explanation is necessary to enable you 

 to understand those distinctions between their different states which will 

 he perpetually alluded to in the course of our correspondence ; and having 

 thus cleared the way, I shall afterwards proceed to the consideration of 

 the injuries and benejits of which insects are the cause. 



I am, he. 



