EPISODES. 3 



not professing to teach the science, but to persuade to its study 

 those who may have time and opportunity for the pursuit ; and 

 to show those who have not, that they may, nevertheless, find 

 interest and pleasure in common observation (not commonly 

 exercised) of the insect million by which they are surrounded. 

 With a confidence that some such work might be generally read, 

 though by no means equally assured of our ability to write one, 

 we long had wavering thoughts of making the attempt. At last 

 we resolved to try, reminded by a returning epoch (a brush, en 

 passant, from the wing of time) that while we doubt and linger, 

 " La vie & differer se passe." 



The end of the year was at hand : " To-morrow," said we to 

 ourselves, " we will really begin a work for everybody about 

 Insects. This very evening shall be devoted to a final decision 

 on its plan ;" for under a hundred Protean forms, and almost 

 as many different names, had our intended work been floating 

 for months before our " mind's eye." Letters Sketches 

 Conversations, these were familiar shapes into which our 

 materials might be moulded ; but they seemed, in one sense, 

 too familiar ; the public taste might be tired of these hackneyed 

 modes of dressing up the sister sciences. Besides, clothing 

 such as this, however light, would overmuch confine us in 

 the very discursive rambles which we had thoughts of taking 

 amongst our creepers, and fliers, and swimmers. Episodes 

 might better serve our purpose, and impose fewer shackles on our 

 roving fancy : Episodes, then, they shall be called Episodes of 

 Insect Life, providing every month a seasonable admixture of 

 the Real and the Ideal. But to-morrow, and for a month to 

 come, what insects will be in season ? Of all the summer 

 myriads, the bulk have long ago expired ; the remnant, scared 

 even by the shadow of advancing winter, betook themselves 

 to hidden places ; and now old Christmas has benumbed them 

 with his icy paw, and keeps them unconscious prisoners 

 within the earth or waters. 



We may still discourse, it is true, of torpid Bees, of sleeping 



