JANUARY. 55 



ENTOMOLOGY. 



The time is past when the study of the names and 

 natures of insects required an apology. To assert 

 that they are things too insignificant for the notice 

 of human beings, is to confess an ignorance of him- 

 self, of the world in which he lives, and of the God 

 who made both him and it, that no one now will 

 suffer himself, for a moment, to be suspected of. 

 What the great God has condescended to make, 

 can it be a degradation for " man, who is but a 

 worm," to know and consider ? Arguments drawn 

 from the mere bulk of objects, go only to prove that 

 giants, mammoths, and elephants are the most esti- 

 mable and important things in the world, and that 

 man himself is comparatively of little moment. 

 These reasonings, therefore, which at one time fur- 

 nished the witling with much merriment at the ex- 

 pense of the naturalist, have vanished, as they were 

 sure to do : but, much as Entomology is now es- 

 teemed, it requires no prophet to see that it must 

 become more and more so. To say nothing of the 

 benefits or inconveniences we experience from in- 

 sects ; there are in their minute shapes such won- 

 derful instincts, powers, and I may add, passions, 

 comprised ; their habits are so curious, extraordi- 

 nary, and varied their forms so splendid and beau- 

 tiful some in their silken robes, some in their blue 

 and burnished armour, some with their glowing and 

 gorgeous wings, transparent as crystal, or feathered. 



