22 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 



since even learned men and philosophers, from a par- 

 tial and prejudiced view of the subject, having recourse 

 to this common-place logic, are sometimes disposed to 

 regard all inquiry into these minutias of nature as use- 

 less and idle, and the mark of a little mind ; to remove 

 such prejudice and misconceptions I shall now dilate 

 somewhat upon the subject of Citi bono ? 



When we see many wise and learned men pay at- 

 tention to any particular department of science, we may 

 naturally conclude that it is on account of some profit 

 and instruction which they foresee maybe derived from 

 it : and therefore in defending Entomology I shall first 

 have recourse to the Argumentum ad verecundiam, and 

 mention trie great names that have cultivated or re- 

 commended it. 



We may begin the list with the first man that ever 

 lived upon the earth, for we are told that he gave a 

 name to every living creature % amongst which insects 

 must be included ; and to give an appropriate name to 

 an object necessarily requires some knowledge of its 

 distinguishing properties. Indeed one of the princi- 

 pal pleasures and employments of the paradisiacal state 

 was probably the study of the various works of crea- 

 tion''. Before the fall the book, of nature was the Bible 

 of man, in which he could read the perfections and at- 

 tributes of the invisible Godhead % and in it, as in a 

 mirror, behold an image of the things of the spiritual 

 world. Moses also appears to have been conversant 

 with our little animals, and to have studied them Avith 

 some attention. This he has shown, not only by being 

 aware of the distinctions which separate the Gr^ Hides 



" Gci!. ii. 19. " Linn. Fn. Suec. Praef. " Rom. i. 19,20. 



