XIV INTRODUCTION. 



south-western portions of England and Ireland, and with a profusion of endemic 

 modifications of its own (bearing witness to the engorgement of this ancient tract 

 with centres of radiation created expressly for itself), whilst geology proclaims the 

 fact that subsidences on a stupendous scale have taken place, by which means the 

 ocean grou^js were constituted ; we seem to trace out on every side records of the 

 past, and to catch the glimpses as it were of a veritable Atlantis from beneath the 

 waves of time, — being well nigh tempted to inquire, 



" And tliou, fairest Isle 



In the dayliglit's smile, 

 Hast thou sunk in the boiling ocean, 



"Willie beyond tliy strand 



Rose a mightier land 

 From tlie wave in alternate motion ? 



" Are the isles that stud 



The Atlantic flood 

 But the peaks of thy tallest mountains, 



Wliile repose below 



The great waters' flow 

 Thy towns and thy towers and fountains ? 



" Have the ocean powers 



Made their quiet bowers 

 In thy fanes and thy dim recesses ? 



Or, in haunts of thine 



Do the sea-maids twine 

 Coral wreaths for their dewy tresses ? 



" But we know not where, 



'Neath the desert air, 

 To look for the pleasant places 



Of the youth of Time, 



Whose austcror prime 

 The haunts of his childhood effaces." 



Regarding the arrangement which I have adopted, I would especially advert to 

 the great assistance which I have derived from Mr. West wood's admii-able Intro- 

 duction to the Modern Classification of Insects, — a work the merit of which it is 

 dilficidt to overrate, and far surpassing every other in our own coiuitry (if not 

 elsewhere also), in a systematic point of view, for the soimd impressions which it 

 conveys, and for the masterly manner in wliich the subject has been treated as a 

 ichole. It is a comparatively easy task to single out any one family or depart- 

 ment, and to propound new doctrines on the collocation, inter se, of the various 

 fragments which unite in composing it ; but to weigh the problem in extenso, to 

 balance the difficulties of conflicting methods from beginning to end, and to extract 



