THE ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 19o 



depend upon their abstract nature, as upon the funds we 

 possess for carrying them into execution, and by which we 

 should, as a matter of course, regulate our operations. Science 

 is encouraged, 1st, By the publication of original information; 

 SBdly, By instituting premiums for the best essays upon any 

 given theme; odly, By the employment of collectors to gather 

 materials for the investigation of the members; in other words, 

 by the establishment of a museum ; 4thly, By the formation of 

 a library ; and, 5thly, By devoting funds to the prosecution of 

 such woi'ks as, from their nature, cannot be expected to 

 receive encouragement from the public. All these points 

 deserve consideration, inasmuch as each possesses some pecu- 

 liar advantage. It may be useful, therefore, to make a few 

 observations upon each, first premising, that all parties will 

 assent to the undeniable wisdom of this principle, that if the 

 same object can be accomplished as effectually without expense, 

 as it can be done, by a different method, with expense, it is 

 our bounden duty to prefer the former; for by so doing, we 

 enable the Society to accomplish much more, by the judicious 

 employment of the funds so saved, than it otherwise could do. 

 1. The publication of the most valuable essays or papers, 

 sent to a scientific society, is unquestionably one of the best 

 means for promoting its objects ; because such a collection may 

 be viewed as the aggregate wisdom of its chief members, 

 although circumstances, hereafter to be adverted to, have very 

 much tended, of late years, to shew that the latter supposition 

 is more visionary than real. Be that, however, as it may, it 

 is plain to all those who know any thing about the matter, that 

 the publication of its Transactions is the most constant and 

 draining expense which can be entailed upon a society; and 

 that even in the case of those who enjoy annual funds to the 

 amount of thousands, it absorbs so much, that nothing can be 

 spared for other and equally beneficial objects. In proof of 

 this, I need only cite the present state of the pecuniary affairs 

 of the Royal Society of London, the parent from which nearly 

 all others have sprang; and of the Linnasan Society, the oldest 

 and the best of those more especially devoted to zoological 

 science. The plan of the former has hitherto been to publish 

 a very considerable portion of their communications in a form 

 and style suited (as some imagined) to the dignity of the 

 association, as if that was dependent upon wire-wove paper, 



NO. II. VOL. II. C C 



