INTRODUCTION. 



IN compliance with many and long-repeated requests, 

 I have at last, after as many and as repeated demurs, 

 made up my mind to write a NATURAL HISTORY OF 

 BRITISH MOTHS, in hope that the favour shown to my 

 former books on kindred subjects may be continued to- 

 wards the present one. My object throughout has been, 

 in all my works, to write for the people at large, and 

 to invite to science rather than to deter from it. I 

 have both seen and heard enough, and too much, of the 

 evil caused by some, who, in the vain and empty de- 

 sire to be thought scientific themselves, have debarred 

 their readers from becoming so. They may please those 

 whose own nature leads them to take "omne ignotum 

 pro magninco," but I know that they have not had, and 

 do not gain, the good will and thanks of the many, 

 whose approbation I would rather win. They get no- 

 thing but contempt from that class which is the largest, 

 and for whom I have written and still write. I well 

 know that the more involved the mode of dealing with 

 a subject, or of setting forth a theory, the greater will 

 be the admiration of some for him who treats of the 

 one or propounds the other; while the more clear a 



VOL. I. A 



