32 INTRODUCTION. 



place and under its proper name, and describing such as are 

 nondescript, another plan of study is requisite. Of the 

 nature of the pursuits of this class of entomologists, Messrs. 

 Kirby and Spence, (having pre\-iously spoken of them as 

 possessing an agreeable and unfailing provision of that 

 "grand panacea for the tedium vitas," — employment,) make 

 the following observations : — " With what view is the study 

 of the mathematics so generally recommended ? Not cer^ 

 tainly for any practical purpose — not to make the bulk of 

 those who attend to them astronomers or engineers, but 

 simply to exercise and strengthen their intellect — to give the 

 mind a habit of attention and investigation. Now, for all 

 these pm'poses, if I do not go so far as to assert that the 

 mere ascertaining of the names of insects is equal to the 

 study of mathematics, I have no hesitation in affirming that 

 it is nearly as effectual, and, with respect to giving a habit 

 of minute attention, superior." Examples are then given of 

 the necessity for minute discrimination in the examination of 

 insects, for the pm'pose of cUscovering the proper name of each 

 and the descriptions to be given of it, if it should happen to be 

 undescribed : but there is still another advantage to be gained 

 from tliis kind of investigation. It may be asserted that no 

 one who has studied the classification of insects, commenc- 

 ing with the class, and going regularly through the orders, 

 sections, famiUes, genera, down to individual species, and 

 neatly arranged his insects in his cases, can leave the subject 

 without having gained certain principles of regularity and 

 order, which will communicate themselves to his every-day 

 employment, inducing a methodical correctness and preci- 

 sion in the details of life, which are so superior to the care- 

 less proceedings of the thoughtless and irregular. 



By the student, therefore, who would attempt the classifi- 

 cation of his collection, it is requisite that a progressive 

 series of inquiries should be made. It is not advisable that 



