31 



LETTER II. 

 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 



IN my last I gave you a general view of the science of Entomology, and 

 endeavoured to prove to you that it possesses attractions and beauty suf- 

 ficient to reward any student who may profess himself its votary. I am 

 now to consider it in a less alluring light, as a pursuit attended by no 

 small degree of obloquy, in consequence of certain objections thought to 

 be urged with great force against it. To obviate these, and remove every 

 scruple from your mind, shall be the business of the present letter. 



Two principal objections are usually alleged with great confidence 

 against the study and pursuit of insects. By some they are derided as 

 trifling and unimportant, and deemed an egregious waste of time and 

 talents; by others they are reprobated as unfeeling and cruel, and as 

 tending to harden the heart. 



I. I shall begin with the first of these objections that the entomo- 

 logist is a mere trifler. As for the silly outcry and abuse of the ignorant 

 vulgar, who. are always ready to laugh at what they do not understand, 

 and because insects are minute objects conclude that the study of them 

 must be a childish pursuit, I shall not waste words upon what I so cor- 

 dially despise. But since even learned men and philosophers, from a 

 partial and prejudiced view of the subject, having recourse to this 

 common-place logic, are sometimes disposed to regard all inquiry into 

 these minutiae of nature as useless and idle, and the mark of a little mind ; 

 to remove such prejudice and misconceptions I shall now dilate somewhat 

 upon the subject of Cui bono ? 



When we see many wise and learned men pay attention to any particular 

 department of science, we may naturally conclude that it is on account of 

 some profit and instruction which they foresee may be derived from it ; 

 and therefore in defending Entomology I shall first have recourse to the 

 argumentum ad verecundiam, and mention the great names that have culti- 

 vated or recommended it. 



We may begin the list with the first man that ever lived upon the 

 earth, for we are told that he gave a name to every living creature \ 

 amongst which insects must be included ; and to give an appropriate 

 name to an object necessarily requires some knowledge of its distin- 

 guishing properties. Indeed one of the principal pleasures and employ- 

 ments of the paradisiacal state was probably the study of the various 

 works of creation. 2 Before the Fall the book of nature was the Bible of 

 man, in which he could read the perfections and attributes of the invisible 

 Godhead 3 , and in it, as in a mirror, behold an image of the things of the 

 spiritual world. Moses also appears to have been conversant with our 

 little animals, and to have studied them with some attention. This he has 

 shown, not only by being aware of the distinctions which separate the 

 various tribes of grasshoppers, crickets, &c. (Gryllus, L.) into different 



* Gen. ii. 19. 3 Linn. Fn. Suec. Praef. * Eom. i. 19, 20. 



