CHAPTER I. 



APOLOGY FOR THE COLLECTOR OF INSECTS. 



833. PETER PINDAR, in his tale of Sir Joseph 

 Banks and the Emperor of Morocco, not only gives 

 the opinion of the unlettered rustic on the subject 

 of insect hunting, but his own opinion, and the 

 opinion of ninety-nine persons out of a hundred, 

 even at the present day ; namely, that a person who 

 could take an interest in pursuing a butterfly is a 

 madman. 



834. The collector of insects must, therefore, 

 make up his mind to sink in the opinion of his 

 friends ; to be the object of the undisguised pity 

 and ridicule of the mass of mankind, from the 

 moment in which he commences so insignificant a 

 pursuit : and precisely in proportion as he enters 

 on the subject scientifically will this pity and 

 ridicule increase. 



835. Argument with others, in these cases, is 

 wholly useless : but each individual may say to 



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