454 HISTORY OF ENTOMOLOGY. 



bits of many tribes and genera, as of the Trichoptera 9 

 Aphides, Ephemerina, &c. 



In this latter department of the science a light shone 

 during part of the era we are now considering, which 

 eclipsed every one that appeared before it, and has 

 scarcely been equalled b% any one that succeeded it. 

 The date of its first appearance, indeed, was a year be- 

 fore that of Linne's first outline of his Systema Nature 

 before alluded to ; but it may properly be regarded as 

 belonging to his era, since it did not disappear till some 

 years after that had begun. A volume indeed would 

 scarcely suffice to do justice to the preeminent merits of 

 Reaumur, as exhibited in his admirable Memoires pour 

 VHistoire des Insectes a : I must therefore content myself 

 with observing, that in judgement and ingenuity in plan- 

 ning his experiments ; in patient assiduity in watching 

 their progress ; in the elegance of his language, and the 

 felicity of his illustrations, he has rarely, if ever, been 

 equalled. Every subject that he undertook was tho- 

 roughly investigated, and in the true spirit of philoso- 

 phical inquiry. Every where you see him the same un- 

 prejudiced and profound observer, attached to no system, 

 anxious only for truth and the advancement of science. 

 If he has any fault, it is, perhaps, that of being some- 

 times too prolix ; but we must recollect that from the na- 

 ture of his subject much diffuseness was often necessary 

 to render his meaning clear. A greater objection is his 

 total inattention to all system, except with regard to 

 Lepidoptera and their larvae b , so that it is often difficult 



a The first volume of this work was published in 1734, the sixth 

 and last in 1742. b Reaum. i. Mem. vi. vii. and Mem. ii. 68 . 



