IV PREFACE. 



mals — Journal d^Hist. JVat, — that M. Cuvier commenced his 

 career in natural history. Entomology, in common with all 

 the other branches of Zoology, has derived the greatest advan- 

 tage from his anatomical researches, and the happy changes he 

 has effected in the basis of our classification. The internal or- 

 ganization of Insects is now better known, and this study is no 

 longer neglected as was previously the case. He has placed 

 us on the way to the Natural System(l), and greatly will the 

 public regret that his numerous occupations did not allow him 

 to superintend this portion of his treatise on animals. 



Perhaps the desire of associating my name with his in a 

 work like this, which, by the multitude of researches on 

 which it rests, and by their application, has become a precious 

 literary monument of the age, has deceived me and thrown 

 me into an enterprize beyond my powers to accomplish. The 

 responsibility is great, and I have imposed upon myself a task, 

 in which the boldness of the plan is only equalled by the dif- 

 ficulty of its execution. To unite within a very limited space 

 the most interesting facts in the history of Insects, to arrange 

 them with precision and clearness in a natural series, to pour- 

 tray with a bold pencil the physiognomy of these animals, 

 trace their distinguishing characters with truth and brevity, 

 in a way proportioned to the successive progress of the science 

 and that of the pupil, to indicate useful or noxious species, 

 and those whose mode of life interests our curiosity, to point 

 out the best sources from which the knowledge of others may 

 be obtained, to restore to Entomology the amiable simplicity 

 which it possessed in the days of Linnaeus, Geoffrey, and of 

 the early writings of Fabricius, but still to present it as it now 

 is, or with all the wealth of observation it has since acquired, 

 yet without overloading it j in a word, to conform to the mo- 

 del before me, the work of M. Cuvier, is the end I have 

 striven to attain. 



This savant, in his '^Tableau Elementaire de FHistoire Na- 

 turelle des Animaux,'' did not restrict the extent given by 



(1) Tableau Element, de I'llist. Nat. des Anunaus, and the Leg. d'Anat. 

 Compar. 



