46 MEMOIR OF LATREILLE. 



" What, moreover, can I say to you respecting 

 the works he has left, with which you are as well 

 acquainted as I am myself. 



" I should not certainly, in such a case, before 

 other men and in the presence of any other assem- 

 bly, have been silent respecting the works of genius 

 which procure for this inanimate bust the honour 

 of such an inauguration. 



" But before conveying a full comprehension of 

 the merits of him whom it represents, it would have 

 been necessary to show the importance of the science, 

 so much despised by the vulgar, to which he de- 

 voted his long and laborious life. 



" I should have been obliged to point out how 

 all the parts of natural history are incomplete with- 

 out that of insects, not only because it is in itself 

 the most considerable by the number of the indivi- 

 duals which it embraces, but also because it is con- 

 nected w T ith all the rest. 



" It would have been necessary for me likewise 

 to prove that it is at once the most difficult, the 

 most extensive, and the most philosophical of them 

 all ; since it is it which shows the phenomena of 

 life and all the mysteries of instinct under the most 

 singular and varied aspects; since it is it which 

 best reveals to our view the fecundity, power, and 

 resources of Nature, along with its innumerable 

 diversities in form and colours. 



" I should then have to direct attention to the 

 fact, that the greatest geniuses who have cultivated 

 natural history ; that those who have rendered their 



