66 STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 
their short-lived popularity, would remember this, and 
desist from similar practices. The writings of Dr. 
Shaw * may further be cited as a proof of the thraldom 
in which, at this period, the zoologists of Britain were 
held by their bigoted devotion to the letter of the 
Systema Nature. Nor was it until some years after, 
when better principles had been established on the 
Continent, that this unaccountable spell was broken. 
(28.) It is worthy of remark, that the very last 
illustrated publication, of any note, upon Entomology, 
which appeared in England, and which is arranged 
in accordance to the Linnzan system, is unquestion- 
ably one of the most beautiful and the most valuable 
that this or any country can boast of. We allude to 
the two noble volumes upon Georgian Insects +, 
edited by our late amiable and excellent friend Sir 
James Smith, the liberal possessor of the Linnean 
Museum, and the founder of the Society which 
bears that name. His labours, indeed, are most 
conspicuous in botany; but in this work he proves 
equally conversant both with plants and insects. 
The plates are the last and best of Harris’s perform- 
ance; and if the reader possesses this work, and 
* G. Shaw. Vivarium Nature; or, The Naturalist’s Miscel- 
lany, by G. Shaw. London, 1789-90. This came out in 
267 numbers, of 3 plates each, nearly all of which are taken 
from other books, and generally coloured from description. — 
General Zoology; or, Systematic Natural History. Com- 
menced in 1800, and continued to many volumes. — pig Ng 
cal Lectures. 2 vols. 8vo.; &c. 
+ J. E. Smith and Abbott. The Natural History of the 
rarer Lepidopterous Insects of Georgia, collected from the 
Drawings and Observations of Mr. John Abbott. London, 
1797. 2 vols. folio. 
