ORDER II. BUGS. 



91 



washing over the trees is in the early part of June, when 

 the insects are young and tender." 



This may appear to my enthusiastic young friends like 

 advocating wholesale murder, and they may deem me to 

 have lost that universal benevolence and love which the 

 study of Natural History usually inspires, when I recom- 

 mend the massacre of many millions of little insects, whose 

 only crime is that they eat the food that Nature has in- 

 stinctively prescribed for them. It is true, all that is posi- 

 tively injurious ought not necessarily to be destroyed, still 

 it is right that of two evils we should choose the least. A 

 distinguished modern reformer of Germany has recently 

 published a pamphlet, entitled "Murder and Liberty," in 

 which he maintains the legality and moral right of assas- 

 sinating all sovereigns and despots wherever they are to be 

 found in the world. He premises his argument upon the 

 fact that it has been, and is considered legal and right for 

 all crowned heads to arraign and execute every patriot and 

 political reformer, whenever and wherever he may be found: 

 ergo, he argues, the same legality and right belongs to the 

 patriot and political reformer to kill all crowned and un- 

 crowned despots, whenever and wherever they may be 

 caught. 



Now, if such a doctrine finds adherents, I am sure I need 

 not fear to recommend the massacre of all injurious insects, 

 and upon the same principles of logic ; they kill trees and 

 shrubs, ergo, we should kill them. 



The few insects here mentioned constitute but a small 

 part of the numerous order Hemiptera, which, together with 

 the preceding, are generally known under the common name 

 of Bug, and, like those, are usually treated as objects of dis- 

 gust or of fear. They are real natural bugbears to those 

 unacquainted with their character or history. 



The general deficiency in the knowledge of Natural His- 

 tory is, however, the greatest bugbear to me, and I can not 



