DO YOU STUDY ENTOMOLOGY f 6 



do a little more work ; you will find that day by day it will 

 become less rebellious and more obedient to your wishes, and 

 you will reap the benefit of the continued application. 



To what does all this tend ? Well, we don't want people 

 to leave off asking questions, but we want them to leave off 

 asking stupid questions. Nine-tenths of the inquiries we get 

 are simply questions by lazy people who are too idle to take 

 the trouble to find out the answers for themselves. It is 

 very convenient when you can get another person to think 

 for you ; what a world of trouble it saves ! But a person 

 who is too lazy to find out the answer to some question, which 

 he would probably meet with in some of the Entomological 

 works which he assures us he has on his bookshelf (though, 

 by the way, they might just as well have been left in the 

 bookseller's shop, for the little use he appears to have made 

 of them), is hardly likely to profit by our reply, and, if 

 treated as he deserves, should be told to " read and he will 

 know." 



Entomologists are . Well, we won't be too severe ; 



but seriously, is there not something utterly wrong in the 

 amount of apparent votaries of the science and the little pro- 

 gress it makes. It is more than twelve months ago since we 

 inquired, " Who bids for the Bugs ?" Several have compli- 

 mented us on the tone of this inquiry, but no one has bid ! 

 Fancy an auctioneer complimented by his audience on his 

 George Robins' style of oratory, yet who failed to get a 

 single offer ! Surely, he would rather have bids than com- 

 pliments ! 



When we survey the number of juveniles who will read 

 these pages— and a correspondent has reminded us that 

 " boys are the raw material out of which men are made" 

 — surely, we must needs think that some one will feel his 



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