INTRODUCTION 



TO 



ENTOMOLOGY. 



LETTER I. 

 DEAR SIR, 



I CANNOT wonder that an active mind like yours should experience no 

 small degree of tedium in a situation so far removed, as you represent 

 your new residence to be, from the "busy hum of men." Nothing 

 certainly can compensate for the want of agreeable society ; but since 

 your case, in this respect, admits of no remedy but patience, I am glad 

 you are desirous of turning your attention to some pursuit, which may 

 amuse you in the intervals of severer study, and in part supply the void 

 of which you complain. I am not a little flattered that you wish to be 

 informed which class in the three kingdoms of nature is, in my opinion, 

 most likely to answer your purpose; at the same time intimating that you 

 feel inclined to give the preference to Entomology, provided some ob- 

 jections can be satisfactorily obviated, which you "have been accustomed 

 to regard as urged with a considerable semblance of reason against the 

 cultivation of that science. 



Mankind in general, not excepting even philosophers, are prone to 

 magnify, often beyond its just merit, the science or pursuit to which they 

 have addicted themselves, and to depreciate any that seems to stand in 

 competition with their favourite : like the redoubted champions of 

 romance, each thinks himself bound to take the field against every one 

 that will not subscribe to the peerless beauty and accomplishments of 

 his own Dulcinea. In such conflict for pre-eminence I know no science 

 that, in this country, has come off worse than Entomology : her champions 

 hitherto have been so few, and their efforts so unavailing, that all her 

 rival sisters have been exalted above her ; and I believe there is scarcely 

 any branch of Natural History that has had fewer British admirers. 

 While Botany boasts of her hosts, she, though not her inferior either in 

 beauty, symmetry, or grace, has received the homage of a very slender 

 train indeed. Since therefore the merits of Entomology have been so 

 little acknowledged, you will not deem it invidious if I advocate the cause 

 of this distressed damsel, and endeavour to effect her restoration to her 

 just rights, privileges, and rank. 



Things that are universally obvious and easy of examination, as they 

 are the first that fall under our notice, so are they also most commonly 



