294 BARON WALCKENAER ON THE 



simple and precise meaning; while that of another writer, 

 wishing to convey a vague or general idea, will, by its being 

 used in a figurative sense, require that it should bear a meaning 

 totally different. 



The examination of every passage in which the same word 

 occurs will afford us an opportunity, in the first place, of ascer- 

 taining, with a greater or less degree of precision, the meaning 

 which each author attached thereto, and also various circum- 

 stances in connexion with the insect, by means of which it may 

 be identified. 



Each word has been submitted to a critical investigation ; 

 and we shall recapitulate the results thus obtained. To 

 compare the imperfect notions of the ancients with the more 

 accurate knowledge of the moderns, it will merely be requisite 

 to remember the results of these investigations ; and we shall 

 not in this last and most difficult inquiry have the least occasion 

 to perplex ourselves with philological discussions : should it 

 seem requisite to enter into any fresh disquisitions, it will only 

 be on the occurrence of such words as may give occasion to 

 useful or curious digressions, and not of those which neces- 

 sarily belong to our more immediate and avowed subject. 



Here, however, it does not appear requisite to observe the 

 same order of discussion as in our first Section. 



It is not now our object to inquire further into the meanings 

 given by each author to the same word, independently of its 

 true and legitimate signification, but to fix its real sense from 

 the different significations attached to each, and from a con- 

 sideration of the various ways in which the words have been 

 employed. Things, not words, are here the subject of our 

 inquiry : and this will guide us in the choice of the plan best 

 adapted to the end proposed. 



Thus we shall begin with insects which have not a great deal 

 to do with the main object of our inquiry, or rather those con- 

 cerning which the information furnished by the ancients has 

 only given us vague or general notions : and we shall after- 

 wards pass on to those which are the principal object of our 

 research, and respecting which the passages we shall examine 

 will afford us circumstantial details or precise information; 

 thus following the method of algebraists, who first discard from 

 their equations adventitious numbers, or those which can only 

 give imperfect results. 



