38 Mr. H. T. Stainton on the Omoard Progress 



III. How may the Onward Progress of the Study of En- 

 tomology he best furthered? By H. T. Stainton, Esq. 



[Read February 4th, 1856.] 



He who looks around him at the countless forms of insect life 

 which meet his eyes on every side may well despair of ever ob- 

 taining an intimate knowledge of all these little creatures ; the 

 study of any one group would furnish him with occupation for 

 life. 



It is a common but erroneous notion, that to restrict one's in- 

 vestigations to a single group would have the effect of contracting 

 one's ideas ; if to hiow any thing thoroughly be an evil, it is an 

 evil by no means widely disseminated ; one person cannot know 

 every thing, however clever and industrious he;, may be; he may 

 be well informed on a great variety of subjects, but information 

 is not knowledge. Information may be derived from books, or 

 from conversation with others ; knowledge is only obtained by 

 our own actual study of the objects themselves. 



A person may be narrow-minded and pedantic from an excess 

 of information, having a superficial knowledge of a variety of 

 subjects but no thorough knowledge of any ; but unless the mind 

 of the individual be very singularly constructed, no amount of 

 thorougl) knowledge will induce prejudiced and one-sided views. 



It is utterly impossible for any person to penetrate deeply into 

 any one branch of study without finding that he is obliged to 

 make himself acquainted with many collateral branches, which 

 bear more or less immediately upon the object of his attention. 

 And from the very fact of his having penetrated deeply into the 

 mysteries of some branch of knowledge, he is well aware of the 

 limited extent of his knowledge of these collateral branches, in 

 which probably he knows more than many a well-informed man 

 who considers himself to have a good knowledge of every thing. 

 And the student, considering himself very ignorant on such a 

 subject, is surprised to find that those who are evidently more 

 ignorant tlian himself should consider themselves very learned. 



But whilst enunciating as an axiom that actual knowledge can 

 only be obtained by perseveringly pursuing some particular branch 

 of study during a long series of years, it may well be urged, is it 



