HISTORY OF ENTOMOLOGY. 44?7 



4. Era ofLinne, or of the Alary System. We are now 

 arrived at that period in the history of Natural Know- 

 ledge, especially of Entomology, in which it received that 

 form, with respect to its general outline, which, amidst 

 many lesser mutations, has been preserved ever since. 

 Swammerdam had altogether deserted the system of 

 Aristotle, and Ray mixed it with that of his predecessor. 

 But a brilliant star soon appeared in the North a , which 

 was destined to be the harbinger of a brighter day than 

 had ever before illuminated the path of the student of 

 the works of GOD. The illustrious philosopher whose 

 name distinguishes this new era, imbibed a taste for 

 Entomology almost as early as for Botany 5 ; and though 

 the latter became his favourite, and absorbed his prin- 

 cipal attention, he did not altogether neglect the former. 

 In the first edition of his Systema Naturte, published in 

 1735, and contained in only fourteen folio pages , he 

 began to arrange the three kingdoms of nature after his 

 own conceptions. But this initiatory sketch, as might 

 be expected, . was very imperfect ; and with respect to 

 insects, instead of an improvement upon his predecessors, 

 was extremely inferior to what Ray had effected ; for he 

 puts into one Order (to which he gives the name of 

 Angiopterd) the Lepidoptera, Neuroptera, Hymenoptera, 

 and Diptera. In this work, however, Generic Characters 

 were first given. In successive editions he continued to 

 improve upon this outline : in the fourth he finally set- 

 tled the number and denominations of his Orders ; and 



a Ray died in 1705, and Linne was born in 1707. 



b When a boy he attempted to introduce wasps and bees into his 

 father's garden, to the great annoyance of the old gentleman. Stoe- 

 ver's Life of Linnceus, 4. Ibid. 75. 



