HEMIPTERA. Ill 



of her contemporaries by her love of the beauties of Nature, and her 

 perseverance in making them known and admired. Sybille de 

 Me'rian was born at Bale. Daughter, sister, and mother of celebrated 

 engravers, herself an excellent flower-painter, she had worked a long 

 :ime at Frankfort and at Nuremburg ; and had read with the greatest 

 ittention the " Theologie des Insectes,"'"'' and with admiration Mal- 

 )ighi's book on the silkworm. Full of enthusiasm for the study of 

 latural history, she left Germany, to visit the magnificent collection 

 )f4ilants which were kept in the hot-houses of Holland, and made 

 .dmirable reproductions of them with her pencil. 



This attentive study of the vegetable world suggested to her the 

 dea, which soon became an ardent desire, of observing these marvels 

 •f Nature in those parts of the globe in which they display themselves 

 nth the greatest magnificence and splendour. At the age of fifty- 

 Dur, Sybille de Me'rian set out for equatorial America. From the 

 ery first days of her arrival she hazarded her life, sometimes without 

 guide, in the swampy plains or burning valleys of Guyana. During 

 le two years she sojourned in those dangerous parts, she made a 

 irge collection of drawings and paintings, which were destined to 

 laugurate in Europe the introduction of art into natural history. 



In the plates to her work, Sybille de Merian represents always 

 le insects she wishes to describe under its three forms of larva, 

 upa, and perfect insect. With this drawing she gives another of 

 le plants which serves the insect for food, as also of the animals 

 hich prey on it. Each plate is a little drama. Near the insect is 

 ;en the greedy lizard opening its dreadful mouth, or the ferocious 

 )ider watching for it. The short life of insects is shown here in its 

 itirety, with its continual struggles, its infinite artifices, its rapid end, 

 id all the episodes of its existence, for which life, as in the case of 

 e moral man, is but a long and painful struggle. 



Such was the work, such was the noble devotion and the worthy 

 '.reer of Sybille de Me'rian. Let women, let young girls, who are 

 artyrs to the ennui of a life devoid of occupation, peruse her 

 ^autiful books, and learn from it how much a woman may do with 

 e time which is now either utterly unoccupied or only devoted to 

 less employments. To study Nature in any of its phases ought, 



i seems to us, to give more satisfaction to the soul, more strength to 

 le mind, and cause more admiration of and gratitude to the 

 fpreme Author of Nature than doing a little embroidery. 



* ** Theologie des Insectes, ou Demonstration des Perfections de Dieu dans 

 It ce qui concerne les Insectes, par Lesser, traduit en rran9ais." La Haye, 



H2. 



