which are injurious to vegetation. 217 



and immediate profit they are associated. This we see in- 

 dicated to too great a degree in our agricuUural publica- 

 tions, and in our newspapers, devoted, as they assume, to 

 the interests of the farmer and tiller of the soil. Hence it 

 is a question of very much more importance, whether the 

 Crow and the Phebe among birds should be destroyed, while 

 the fruit-stealing Robin and sociable Waxen Chatterer 

 remain unmolested ; or how the grub of the plum tree can 

 be prevented from injuring our fruits, than to study deeply 

 and admiringly into those habits and the economy of the 

 Creator's work, and to mark Consummate Wisdom in my- 

 riad ways : — something of greater value to find out how to 

 put a few more dollars into our pockets, than good ideas 

 and sublime and elevating notions into our minds. Many 

 a man will thank our friend Dr. Harris for the results of 

 his studies, the more especially if he will tell him the pre- 

 ventive, who would gaze with all the wonder of " what 

 can be the use," at his well filled cabinet of insects, or 

 think it passing strange that large volumes could be writ- 

 ten about such insignificant creatures as bugs, and flies, and 

 worms. But it is a homely adage '-that we must creep 

 before we can walk," so let men creep on, and totter about 

 in the leading-strings of knowledge, until by-and-bye, as 

 they grow taller and bigger, they will perchance be able to 

 see farther, into uses and utilities than the market- basket 

 or the dollar, Certes, we have great sympathy, we are 

 free to confess, with our good friend, whose insect collec- 

 tions we have often admired, and whose heart evinces 

 what influence, something beyond the uses of life, in his 

 favorite science, has effected. 



Until within a few years, every one who has paid any 

 attention, however slight, to the study of Natural History, 

 has felt the lack of works which could give him any in- 

 formation about the subjects of our own natural produc- 

 tions. Even to know what made the distinction between 

 a bug and an insect, a grub or a worm, we were obliged to 

 turn to some foreign assistance, and rummage over the dry 

 pages of some ponderous Cyclopaedia, which generally was 

 most correctly named, for its instruction teas in a circle ; 

 information ending where it begun, and we as wise after 

 our search as before ; unless stupidity acquired by the eflbrt, 

 render us a fit companion to wisdom's bird, the owl, whose 

 looks are in its favor, though its wit is below par. The 



VOL. IX. NO. VI. 28 



