18 ADVANTAGES OF THE STUDY. 



ralists. The loveliest rose that ever unfolded her 

 petals to the skies of June, the sweetest violet that 

 ever yielded her fragrance to the wooing breath of 

 April, are alike reft of their beauty, when transferred 

 to the hortus siccus of the botanist. The ornitholo- 

 gist may obtain for his herons, his swans, and his 

 falcons, their respective attitudes, but he must do so 

 at considerable cost, and requires a range of apart- 

 ments for their display and classification. The speci- 

 mens of the mineralogist are frequently of consider- 

 able bulk and weight, and require a corresponding 

 space for their arrangement. The Entomologist, on 

 the contrary, can, in a single drawer of moderate 

 dimensions, preserve hundreds of insects, with all the 

 colouring and attitudes of life. Yet it is not because 

 of their colours, though rich ; or their forms, though 

 varied ; or both, though beautiful, that I recommend 

 them to your notice. As beings endued with life, they 

 have higher claims on your attention. Morning, 

 noon, evening, and night, has each its own race of 

 happy insects ; they flit in the warm sunbeam of 

 summer, and desert not the icy mantle of winter. 



Another reason why some attention should be 

 given to the study of insects, is the greatness of 

 their numbers, compared with that of the other tribes 

 of animated beings. The mammalia, birds, fishes, 

 and reptiles, at present known, and the mollusca. 



