THE PLEASURES OF ENTOMOLOGY. / 



with moths; the marshy swamp, where the reeds and typha 

 helped to furnish a supply of Wainscots; the hollow in the 

 oak wood, where the first Purple Emperor was seen, and, 

 after many an hour's watching, was at length observed to 

 descend to the margin of a muddy pool, and there caught; 

 all these spots, and all the pleasurable sensations received at 

 each of them, are they not written in the chronicles of our 

 recollection? And are these not pleasures which belong to 

 us specially as Entomologists, and which the many are unable 

 to participate in ? 



Each time that the collector of insects catches some 

 species which he has not before met with, he receives a thrill 

 of pleasure, which it is very difficult to render intelligible to 

 those who have not felt it ; (those who are fond of music can 

 have some conception of it from noticing their own sensa- 

 tions when they hear a beautiful air for the first time ;) the 

 number of species being so great, the pleasure is one of con- 

 stant recurrence — occurring less frequently, it is true, as our 

 collection advances towards completeness, but occurring in 

 greater intensity in proportion as the sensation is more rarely 

 experienced. 



Yet, after all, these pleasures are but for ourselves and to 

 ourselves; no one can share our pleasure in adding to our 

 collection. 



But the observer of insects enjoys pleasures of a far higher 

 order ; with him each new observation, even if communicated 

 by another, produces a more intense thrill of delight than 

 that experienced by the collector on adding some rarity to 

 his collection — the discovery of some peculiarity in the habit 

 of species long well known in our collections, but of which 

 the habits had not previously been observed, this is an addi- 

 tion not to the collection of an individual, but to science, to 

 the knowledge of created beings acquired by the human 

 race; and in the present infant state of Entomology such 



