24 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 



Geer, Bonnet, and the Hubers ? and at home, what 

 philosophers have done more honour to their country 

 and to human nature than Ray, Willughby, Lister, 

 and Derham ? Yet all these made the study of insects 

 one of their most favourite pursuits ; and, as if to prove 

 that this study is not incompatible with the highest 

 flights of genius, we can add to the list the name of one 

 of the most sublime of our poets. Gray, who was very 

 zealously devoted to Entomology. As far therefore as 

 names have weight, the above enumeration seems suf- 

 ficient to shelter the votaries of this pleasing science 

 from the charge of folly. 



But we do not wish to rest our defence upon autho- 

 rities alone ; let the voice of reason be heard, and our 

 justification >^ ill be complete. The entomologist, or, 

 to speak more generally, the naturalist (for on this 

 question of Cui bono? every student in all departments 

 of Natural History is concerned), if the following con- 

 siderations be allowed their due weight, may claim a 

 much higher station amongst the learned than has 

 hitherto been conceded to him. 



There are two principal avenues to knowledge — 

 the study of words and the study of things. Skill in 

 the learned languages being often necessary to enable 

 us to acquire knowledge in the former way, is usually 

 considered as knowledge itself; so that no one asks 

 Cui bono ? when a person devotes himself to the study 

 of verbal criticism, and employs his time in correcting 

 the errors that have crept into the text of an ancient 

 writer. Indeed it must be owned, though perhaps too 

 much stress is sometimes laid upon it, that this is very 

 useful to enable us to ascertain his true meaning. But 



