Introduction. 1 1 



Barrington calls himself is well calculated to strengthen 

 even the most practical and merely useful powers of the 

 mind. One of the most valuable mental acquirements is 

 the power of discriminating among things which differ in 

 many minute points, but whose general similarity of appear- 

 ance usually deceives the common observer into a belief of 

 their identity. The study of insects, in this point of view, 

 is most peculiarly adapted for youth. According to our 

 experience, it is exceedingly difficult for persons arrived at 

 manhood to acquire this power of discrimination; but, in 

 early life, a little care on the part of the parent or teacher 

 will render it comparatively easy. In this study the know- 

 ledge of things should go along with that of words. "If 

 names perish," says Linnaeus, " the knowledge of things 

 perishes also :" * and, without names, how can any one com- 

 municate to another the knowledge he has acquired relative 

 to any particular fact, either of physiology, habit, utility, or 

 locality ? On the other hand, mere catalogue learning 

 is as much to be rejected as the loose generaliza- 

 tions of the despisers of classification and nomenclature. 

 To name a plant, or an insect, or a bird, or a quadruped 

 rightly, is one step towards an accurate knowledge of it ; 

 but it is not the knowledge itself. It is the means, 

 and not the end. in natural history, as in every other 

 science. 



If the bias of opening curiosity be properly directed, there 

 is not any branch of natural history so fascinating to youth 

 as the study of insects. It is, indeed, a common practice in 

 many families to teach children, from their earliest infancy, 

 to treat the greater number of insects as if they were 

 venomous and dangerous, and, of course, meriting to be 

 destroyed, or at least avoided with horror. Associations 

 are by this means linked with the very appearance of 

 insects, which become gradually more inveterate with ad- 

 vancing years ; provided, as most frequently happens, the 

 same system be persisted in, of avoiding or destroying almost 

 every insect which is unlucky enougli to attract observation. 



* Nomina si pereant, pent et cognitio rerum. 



