8 THE PLEASURES OF ENTOMOLOGY. 



pleasures may be enjoyed many a time in the course of the 

 year, and they will be more intense in proportion to the 

 extent we can communicate them : here no room is left for 

 selfishness, we add but to the common stock, and few will 

 be disposed to be vain of the additions they may thus have 

 made to the accumulated masses of knowledge about these 

 atoms, when they reflect what a small fraction it is of the 

 whole, and how less than nothing it appears when compared 

 with the vast extent of the " terra incognita" of Entomology. 



And these pleasures, it will be observed, though of so 

 high an order, are positively within the reach of all ; it has 

 been well said " happiness is within our reach, if we will 

 but take it." 



Those who have once felt these pleasures know that there 

 is an amount of enjoyment in them, which neither wealth 

 nor rank can bestow ; and they feel at the same time, that 

 having learnt the secret of these pleasures, it would matter 

 but little which of the usually-considered greater misfor- 

 tunes befell them — no loss of property could prevent their 

 enjoying these pleasures, because they are pleasures inde- 

 pendent of property — no alienation of friends could disturb 

 their happiness in these pleasures, because they are pleasures 

 independent of friendship. 



The pleasures of the collector are much mixed up with 

 his collection, and if deprived of that, he might indeed be 

 disposed to exclaim that the spoiler — 



" Itobs me of that which not enriches him, 

 And leaves me poor indeed." 



Collections of insects are necessarily perishable ; mould, 

 mites, fire, &c, especially the two former, are often agents 

 of destruction. But the process of re-making a collection 

 is much less tedious than that by which the first collection 

 was made— the experience acquired in making Collection 



