15t HISTORY OF ENTOMOLOGY. 
bits of many tribes and genera, — as of the Trichoptera, 
Aphides, Ephemerina, &c. 
In this latter department of the science a light shone 
during part of the era we are now considering, which 
eclipsed every one that appeared before it, and has 
scarcely been equalled by any one that succeeded it. 
The date of its first appearance, indeed, was a year be- 
fore that of Linne's first outline of his Systema Naturtc 
before alluded to ; but it may properly be regarded as 
belonging to his era, since it did not disappear till some 
years after that had begun. A volume indeed would 
scarcely suffice to do justice to the preeminent merits of 
Reaumur, as exhibited in his admirable Mcmoires pour 
VHistoire des Insectes a : I must therefore content myself 
with observing, that in judgement and ingenuity in plan- 
ning his experiments ; in patient assiduity in watching 
their progress ; in the elegance of his language, and the 
felicity of his illustrations, he has rarely, if ever, been 
equalled. Every subject that he undertook was tho- 
roughly investigated, and in the true spirit of philoso- 
phical inquiry. Every where you see him the same un- 
prejudiced and profound observer, attached to no system, 
anxious onlyTor truth and the advancement of science. 
If he has any fault, it is, perhaps, that of being some- 
times too prolix ; but we must recollect that from the na- 
ture of his subject much diffuseness was often necessary 
to render his meaning clear. A greater objection is his 
total inattention to all system, except with regard to 
Lepidoptera and their larvae b , so that it is often difficult 
* The first volume of this work was published in 1734, the sixth 
and last in 1742. b Reaum. i. Mem. vi. vii. and Mem. ii. 68 — . 
