370 NOTES ON 



Raddon has positively not sent us a single line. We must 

 endeavour to supply the deficiency ; we have ourselves watched 

 the progress of a Sphinx, from the egg to the imago, and the 

 operations of the whole tribe are nearly similar ; we will there- 

 fore intertwine our own gleanings with the information Mr. 

 Curtis has given us in his British Entomology, information 

 which that author received from Mr. Raddon. 



Gentle Reader, — Let us call thy attention to Curtis's col- 

 lection of Sphingites, — alike, but different. We are turning 

 them over to find out all about Euphorbice. What exquisite 

 softness, and downyness, and featheryness on that Death's 

 Head! and what velvetyness, what rotundity, what life, what 

 reality, in this caterpillar of Carolina ! surely pencil never 

 told the tale more truly ! surely the lovers of beauty never 

 gazed on a more delightful assemblage ! Curtis, thou art 

 without compeer ! 



Gentle Reader, — Pitifully contracted must be the mind that, 

 to preserve consistency, would deviate from the path of recti- 

 tude ; pitifully shallow must be that reasoning which would 

 lead to perseverance in reproof no longer merited; pitifully 

 weak must be that resolution which shrinks from the right, lest 

 others should suppose it wrong; but, above all, pitifully painful 

 must be that soul-cramp which attributes all praise after blame 

 to motives of policy or expediency. We have met Mr. Curtis 

 at the social board ; we have for years lived on terms of inti- 

 macy, we may say of friendship, with him : furthermore, Mr. 

 Curtis was friendly to our undertaking ; he was desirous of its 

 success ; he exerted himself to assist us : he had an extensive 

 entomological acquaintance, who bowed to his opinion; his 

 good will, his good word, were of great importance to us; 

 yet, even under these circumstances, when he adopted a course 

 which, in our sober, unbiassed judgment, we considered wrong, 

 we did not fail to give the public our opinion openly and 

 boldly, — not in haste ; we weighed the consequences well. 

 In our subsequent notices the want of space has compelled us 

 to be brief, very brief; but in pointing out trivial errors, we 

 imagine we have still followed the path of duty ; of our praise 

 we have been sparing, perhaps too sparing, but the exceeding 

 beauty of many of the figures from which we have turned with- 

 out a comment, must make its own way, must speak its own 

 praise. 



