XII INTRODUCTION. 



avail himself of the industry of its collectors, 

 by bringing them as much as possible within 

 his reach ; and by this means he would take 

 an important step towards an acquaintance 

 with entomology. But the progress made by 

 our earliest progenitors, in this or any other 

 science, is involved in the obscurity and un- 

 certainty necessarily appertaining to the in- 

 fancy of society. 



The first indications of attention to natural 

 history are contained in the Old Testament. 

 The interest which it excited in the mind of 

 SOLOMON, evinces how highly it was esteemed 

 in his time. The records of its first pro- 

 gression are however entirely lost, and no 

 regular history of this science exists prior to 

 the days of ARISTOTLE, who under the au- 

 spices and through the munificence of his 

 pupil Alexander the Great, was enabled to 

 prosecute with the greatest advantage, for 

 the time in which he lived, his experiments 

 and inquiries into every department of na- 

 tural history. Alexander felt so strong a 

 desire to promote this object, that he placed 

 at the disposal of Aristotle a very large sum 

 of money, and in his Asiatic expedition 



