OF INSECTS IN GENERAL. 317 



pbfervations with which it prefcnts the reader, bear but 

 a fmall proportion to thofe whofe objecl is merely to gra- 

 tify curiolity. But in what fcience is there nothing to 

 be found but what is immediately ufeful? and are not 

 objects of curiolity often nearly allied to thofe of utility ? 

 Is it not while we amufe ourfelvcs with the former, that we 

 are mofl frequently led to the difcovery of the latter? To 

 thefe circumftances, we may add another for the encou- 

 ragement of thofe who undertake to write upon this fub^ 

 jecl ; that works the moll ufeful are not always the moft 

 favourably received : The number of thofe who read for 

 amufement, is at leaft equal to thofe who read for in- 

 ftruftion, A tafte for the marvellous, in a greater or 

 lefs degree, is univerfal among men : It is this which 

 leads them to prefer romances, novels, Pety^uin and Ara- 

 bian tales, to the incidents of real hiftory. The genera- 

 tion, the metamorphofes of infecls, their means of rear- 

 ing their young, and of procuring food, prefent to the 

 reader wonders, perhaps not inferior to thofe that are fa- 

 bricated by the vao'A. licentious imagination ; with this 

 dificrence, that the latter are true. The cntymolo- 

 giil therefore, has himfelf rather than his fubjc6l to 

 blame, if his works are not read by the public with 

 Sjividity. 



