xii PREFACE. 



against speaking of the manners and economy of insects before 

 entering upon the definition of them, and explaining the terms of 

 the science, a retrograde course, which they have chosen from 

 their desire to present the most alluring side of the science first, 

 is, in great measure, if not wholly obviated. 



Such is the plan which the Authors chalked out for themselves ; 

 a plan which in the execution they have found so much more ex- 

 tensive than they calculated upon, that, could they have foreseen 

 the piles of volumes through which it has entailed upon them the 

 labour of wading, often to glean scarcely more than a single fact, 

 the numerous anatomical and technological investigations which 

 it has called for, and the long correspondence, almost as bulky as 

 the entire work, unavoidably rendered necessary by the distant 

 residence of the parties, they would have shrunk from an under- 

 taking of which the profit, if by great chance there should be any, 

 could not be expected to repay even the cost of books required in 

 it, and from which any fame must necessarily be confined to a very 

 limited circle. , But having entered upon it, they have persevered : 

 and if they succeed in their grand aim, that of making converts 

 amongst their countrymen to a study equally calculated for pro- 

 moting the glory of God and the delight and profit of man, they 

 will not deem the labour of the leisure hours of six years ill be- 

 stowed. 



And here it. may be proper to observe, that one of their first and 

 favourite objects has been to direct the attention of their readers 

 " from nature up to nature's God." For, when they reflected upon 

 the fatal use which has too often been made of Natural History, 

 and that from the very works and wonders of God some philoso- 

 phists, by an unaccountable perversion of intellect, have attempted 

 to derive arguments either against His being and providence, or 

 against the religion revealed in the Holy Scriptures, they conceived 

 they might render some service to the most important interests of 

 mankind, by showing how every department of the science they 

 recommend illustrates the great truths of religion, and proves that 

 the doctrines of the Word of God, instead of being contradicted, 

 are triumphantly confirmed by His Works. 



" To see all things in God" has been accounted one of the peculiar 

 privileges of a future state ; and in this present life, " to see God in 



