584 APPEKDIX. 



parts, and of terms applied to those parts. In order to break the matter gra- 

 dually to Marsham, I have told him of our plan of an ' Introduction to En- 

 tomology.' With MacLeay, upon whose secrecy and judgment I can rely, 

 I have gone further, having opened to him our whole plan, and requested his 

 sentiments, as we would both wish to do every thing as much as possible in a 

 way not to hurt our friend Marsham's feelings. The former I expect to hear 

 from daily; from the latter I have heard, but he took no notice of what I said 

 about our * Introduction to Entomology.' And now let me reply to what you 

 say about terms," &c. 



My reply to this letter is dated Drypool, Jan. 2, 1809, and six closely- 

 written pages are filled with further comments on his proposed mono- 

 graph of Staphylinidce. I then proceed towards the end as follows : 



" I am quite delighted that we have been so much in unison with regard to 

 an * Introduction to Entomology,' and I am glad that you have broken our 

 scheme to Marsham, and fully unfolded it to MacLeay. Yet I fear, from the 

 former's silence, it is not quite what he approves, though I think it might be 

 easily proved to him that nothing would be so likely to promote the sale of 

 his work as an elementary work on the science. I shall be impatient for Mac 

 Leay's opinion of the scheme." 



In another letter to Mr. Kirby, dated January 25, 1809, principally 

 devoted to giving my reasons for making as few changes as possible in old 

 and generally-received entomological nomenclature, though it may not 

 be strictly correct, I observe towards its close : 



" To turn to another subject, our embryo ' Introduction to Entomology,' 

 I will here give you my ideas as to the plan of such a work, which I submit to 

 your consideration. Tell me what you think of it, and propose any that you 

 may deem better. The first requisite of such a work is, I think, that it should 

 be popular, that it be a book which might be read with pleasure and in- 

 struction even by those who have no intention of studying the technicals of the 

 science. Entomology is at such a low ebb amongst us, and so many obstacles 

 and prejudices are to be overcome in rendering its study general, that the first 

 approach cannot be made too attractive. In this view I would throw the work 

 into Letters, a form which admits of much latitude in amusing digressions, 

 and for which Rousseau's * Letters on Botany,' Sprengel's recent Letters on 

 Cryptogamic Terminology,' &c. are sufficient precedents. From my own ex- 

 perience in studying the science of botany, I know how much more pleasant it 

 is to have the at best rather dry materials of terminology conveyed in a familiar 

 style, and made palatable by an attractive vehicle. Having fixed on the epis- 

 tolary form, the first letter I would devote to refuting objections on the score of 

 the trifling nature of the science, pointing out the advantages which man al- 

 ready derives from the insect world ; the probability of his greatly augment- 

 ing them ; the vast power of insects to injure him; the necessity, in warding 

 off this evil, of ascertaining them scientifically ; the pleasures to be derived 

 from the study, &c. &c. Then I would proceed to the mode of collecting in- 

 sects, preserving them, &c., which would fill three or four letters. Lastly, I 

 would enter upon the terminology, first giving a general idea of the system, 

 and then teaching the terms by supposing the correspondent to have before him 

 some very common Coleopterous species, the parts of which might be still fur- 

 ther illustrated by a few good outline figures. In this description of parts I 

 would confine myself chiefly to the order Coleoptera, since that alone can at 

 present be satisfactorily studied in tb's country. The peculiar terminology of 



