202 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 84 



table and splendid zest, often in spite of the unconcealed derision or 

 pity of their friends and families. 



Many of these old writers wrote about other branches of natural 

 history as well ; but of those who practically confined their investi- 

 gations to insects the following names stand out : Goedart, Swammer- 

 dam, Ray, Vallisnieri, Madame Merrian, Reaumur, Frisch, Clerck, 

 Roesel von Rosenhof, Lyonnet, DeGeer, Bonnet, Scopoli, Goeffroy, 

 Fabricius, Olivier, Kirby, Meigen, Fallen, Latreille, Wiedemann, 

 St. Fargeau, and the small army who published in the early nineteenth 

 century. And then such fine men followed them ! Large groups were 

 admirably monographed by them. They were learned masters in a 

 way, but although the group that appreciated and honored them was 

 world-wide, it was a very small group, and the world at large was 

 ignorant of their existence, ignored their writings, and largely ridi- 

 culed the highly important field of investigation in which they spent 

 their productive and useful lives. 



Most of these men must have been keenly aware of the popular 

 estimation of their work. Numerous writers on entomology of all 

 nations in those days introduced their volumes with words, not of 

 excuse, but of explanation, to justify their importance. 



The rating of entomology in the public mind at the l)eginning of 

 the nineteenth century was well expressed by Kirby and Spence m 

 1 81 5 in the following words: 



One principal reason of the little attention paid to entomology in this country, 

 has doubtless been the ridicule so often thrown upon the science. The botanist, 

 sheltered now by the sanction of fashion, as formerly by the prescriptive union 

 of his study with medicine, may dedicate his hours to mosses and lichens without 

 reproach ; but in the minds of most men, the learned as well as the vulgar, the 

 idea of the trifling nature of his pursuit is so strongly associated with that of 

 the diminutive size of its objects, that an entomoiogist is synonymous with 

 everything futile and childish. Now, when so many other roads to fame and 

 distinction are open, when a man has merely to avow himself a botanist, a 

 mineralogist, or a chemist — a student of classical literature or of political 

 economy — to ensure attention and respect, there are evidently no great attrac- 

 tions to lead him to a science which in nine companies out of ten with which 

 he may associate promises to signalize him only as an object of pity or contempt. 

 Even if he have no other aim than self-gratification, yet " The stanchest stoic 

 of us all wishes at least for some one to enter into his views and feelings, and 

 confirm him in the opinion which he entertains of himself " ; but how can he look 

 for sympathy in a pursuit unknown to the world, except as indicative of littleness 

 of mind? ^ 



* Preface to Vol. i of the " Introduction to Entomologj'." Mr. Spence wrote 

 this preface (see Proceedings of Entomological Society of London for August 

 5, 1850, Transactions, Vol. i, new series, page 20). 



