OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 13 



weight, the above enumeration seems sufficient to shelter the votaries of 

 this pleasing science from the charge of folly. 



But we do not wish to rest our defence upon authorities alone ; let the 

 voice of reason be heard, and our justification will be complete. The en- 

 tomologist, or, to speak more generally, the naturalist (for on this question 

 of Cut bono ? every student in all departments of Natural History is con- 

 cerned), if the following considerations be allowed their due weight, may 

 claim a much higher station amongst the learned than has hitherto been 

 conceded to him. 



There are two principal avenues to knowledge the study of words and 

 the study of things. Skill in the learned languages being often necessary 

 to enable us to acquire knowledge in the former way, is usually considered 

 as knowledge itself; so that no one asks Cui bono? when a person devotes 

 himself to the study of verbal criticism, and employs his time in correcting 

 the errors that have crept into the text of an ancient writer. Indeed it 

 must be owned, though perhaps too much stress is sometimes laid upon it, 

 that this is very useful to enable us to ascertain his true meaning. But 

 after all, words are but the arbitrary signs of ideas, and have no value 

 independent of those ideas, further than what arises from congruity and 

 harmony, the mind being dissatisfied when an idea is expressed by in- 

 adequate words, and the ear offended when their collocation is inhar- 

 monious. To account the mere knowledge of words, therefore, as wisdom, 

 is to mistake the cask for the wine, and the casket for the gem. I say all 

 this because knowledge of words is often extolled beyond its just merits, 

 and put for all wisdom; while knowledge of things, especially of the pro- 

 ductions of nature, is derided as if it were mere folly. We should re- 

 collect that God hath condescended to instruct us by both these ways, 

 and therefore neither of them should be depreciated. He hath set before 

 us his word and his world. The former is the great avenue to truth and 

 knowledge by the study of words, and, as being the immediate and autho- 

 ritative revelation of his will, is entitled to our principal attention ; the 

 latter leads us to the same conclusions, though less directly, by the study 

 of things, which stands next in rank to that of God's word, and before 

 that of any work of man. And whether we direct our eyes to the planets 

 rolling in their orbits, and endeavour to trace the laws by which they 

 are guided through the vast of space, whether we analyse those powers 

 and agents by which all the operations of nature are performed, or whether 

 we consider the various productions of this our globe, from the mighty 

 cedar to the microscopic mucor from the giant elephant to the invisible 

 mite, still we are studying the works and wonders of our God. The book, 

 to whatever page we turn, is written by the finger of Him who created us ; 

 and in it, provided our minds be rightly disposed, we may read his eternal 

 verities. And the more accurate and ' enlarged our knowledge of his 

 works, the better shall we be able to understand his word ; and the more 



" Well then," rejoined Cuvier, " I advise you to dissect an insect. I leave the 

 species to your own choice : it may be the largest you can find ; and having done 

 this, review your supposed discovery, and if you still think it exact, I will take 

 your word for it." The young man, a friend of M. Audouin, submitted with a good 

 grace to this test, and having acquired more dexterity and more caution, came 

 shortly to thank Cuvier for his advice, and to confess his former mistake. " You 

 see," said the latter, smiling, " that my touchstone was not bad." (Audouin Notice 

 fiur George Cuvier. Ann. Soc. Ent. de France, i. 317.) 



