6 Insect Architecture. 



because then everything appears new and dressed in fresh 

 beauties : while in manhood, and old age, whatever has 

 frequently recurred begins to wear the tarnish of decay. 

 The study of nature affords us a succession of "ever-new 

 delights," such as charmed us in childhood, when every- 

 thing had the attractions of novelty and beauty ; and thus 

 the mind of the naturalist may have its own fresh and 

 vigorous thoughts, even while the infirmities of age weigh 

 down the body. 



It has been objected to the study of insects, as well as 

 to that of Natural History in general, that it tends to with- 

 draw the mind from subjects of higher moment ; that it 

 cramps and narrows the range of thought; and that it 

 destroys, or at least weakens, the finer creations of the 

 fancy. Now, we should allow this objection in its fullest 

 extent, and even be disposed to carry it further than is 

 usually done, if the collecting of specimens only, or, as the 

 French expressly call them, chips (ecliantillons), be called a 

 study. But the mere collector is not, and cannot be, justly 

 considered as a naturalist ; and, taking the term naturalist 

 in its enlarged sense, we can adduce some distinguished 

 instances in opposition to the objection. Eousseau, for 

 example, was passionately fond of the Linnsean botany, 

 even to the driest minutira of its technicalities ; and yet it 

 does not appear to have cramped his mind, or impoverished 

 his imagination. If Eousseau, however, be objected to as 

 an eccentric being, from whose pursuits no fair inference 

 can be drawn, we give the illustrious example of Charles 

 James Fox, and may add the names of our distinguished 

 poets, Goldsmith, Thomson, Gray, and Darwin, who were 

 all enthusiastic naturalists. We wish particularly to insist 

 upon the example of Gray, because he was very partial 

 to the study of insects. It may be new to many of our 

 readers, who are familiar with the * Elegy in a Country 

 Churchyard,' to be told that its author was at the pains to 

 turn the characteristics of the Linnsean orders of insects 

 into Latin hexameters, the manuscript of which is still 

 preserved in his interleaved copy of the * Systema Naturae.' 



