PREFACE 



TO 



THE FIRST EDITION, 1815. 



ONE principal cause of the little attention paid to Entomology in 

 this country has doubtless been the ridicule so often thrown upon 

 the science. The botanist, sheltered now by the sanction of 

 fashion, as formerly by the prescriptive union of his study with 

 medicine, may dedicate his hours to mosses and lichens without 

 reproach ; but in the minds of most men, the learned as well as 

 the vulgar, the idea of the trifling nature of his pursuit is so 

 strongly associated with that of the diminutive size of its objects, 

 that an Entomologist is synonymous with every thing futile and 

 childish. Now, when so many other roads to fame and distinction 

 are open, when a man has merely to avow himself a botanist, a 

 mineralogist, or a chemist, a student of classical literature, or of 

 political economy, to insure attention and respect, there are evi- 

 dently no great attractions to lead him to a science which, in nine 

 companies out of ten with which he may associate, promises to 

 signalise him only as an object of pity or contempt. Even if he 

 have no other aim than self-gratification, yet " the sternest stoic 

 of us all wishes at least for some one to enter into his views and 

 feelings, and confirm him in the opinion which he entertains of 

 himself: "but how can he look for sympathy in a pursuit un- 

 known to the world, except as indicative of littleness of mind ? 



Yet such are the genuine charms of this branch of the study of 

 nature, that here as well as on the Continent, where, from being 



