430 HISTORY OF ENTOMOLOGY. 



1. The Era of the Ancients. 2. The Era of the revival 

 of the science after the darkness of the middle ages. 

 3. The Era of Swammerdam and Ray, or of the Meta- 

 morphotic System. 4. The Era of Linne, or of the Alary 

 System. 5. The Era of Fabricius, or of the Maxillary 

 System. 6. The Era of Latreille, or of the Eclectic 

 System. And 7. The EraofMacLeay, or of the Quinary 

 System. All of these appear to form important points, 

 or resting-places, in the progress of the science towards 

 its acme ; and of each of these I shall now proceed to 

 give you a brief account. 



1. The Era of the Ancients. To ascertain what atten- 

 tion was paid to insects in the earliest ages, we must 

 have recourse to the most ancient of records, the Old 

 Testament. In this sacred volume we are informed that 

 after the Creation GOD brought the creatures to Adam 

 that he might name them a . Now the first man, in his 

 unimpaired state of corporeal, mental, and spiritual 

 soundness, under the divine guidance, doubtless imposed 

 upon them names significant of their qualities or struc- 

 ture; which according to Plato was a work above human 

 wisdom, and on account of which the ancient Hebrews 

 deduced that Adam was a philosopher of the highest 

 endowments b . Whether on this great and interesting 

 occasion he gave names to individual species, or only to 

 natural groups, does not clearly appear. But probably 

 as they were created, so were they brought before him 

 " According to their kinds c ." 



Subsequently Moses will be thought to have possessed 

 no ordinary knowledge of insects, if we suppose, as the 



a Genes, ii. 19 . b Pol. Synops. on Genes, ii. 



c Genes, i. 25* 



