3^46 Audubon^s Ornithology, First Volume. 



to be carelessly and capriciously set down by the prejudice and 

 injustice of those who may not sympathize with his pursuits and 

 his tastes, as a vagabond, an idler, and at best a very useless indi- 

 vidual, if not one who should be regarded as an outcast from 

 societJ^ The entomologist, with his net and other paraphernalia 

 for the pursuit of the objects of his study, has at last ceased to 

 be looked upon except by the ignorant and the unintelligent, as 

 at best a sort of monomaniac, who manifests his insanity by pin- 

 ning all sorts of curious bugs to the crown of his hat. 



The study of the natural sciences is fast becoming a more and 

 more favorite pursuit ; every hour adds to the numbers of its vo- 

 taries, and its warmest friends have at length every reason to be 

 satisfied with the progress it is making, and to feel that before 

 long it will keep pace with that of civilization and intelligence. 

 Beyond this would be to expect impossibilities. 



The friends of the natural sciences need ask for no stronger 

 proof of the beneficial effects which follow the study of their 

 favorite pursuits, than that offered by the simple fact of its on- 

 ward progress, and the rapidly increasing favor it finds with the 

 public. Did these not exist, in vain might Cuvier have labored ; 

 in vain would hav6 been all the fascinating eloquence of his lee-, 

 tures ; in vain the simplicity and clearness of his writings. He 

 might, indeed, for a time, have carried captive, by his powers of 

 intellect, an imaginative people ; but they would sooner or later 

 have detected the imposture, had they been pursuing an ignis 

 fatuus, or even a harmless but unprofitable shadow. An intelli- 

 gent people may for a time be deceived and misled, but they 

 are never long deliberately in error; and we may therefore appeal 

 "with confidence to the striking and conclusive facts that where, 

 there is most intelligence, there and there only, the natural sci- 

 ences flourish, best, and also that the more the attention of a peo- 

 ple is called to the subject, the more and more popular do they 

 become, and the greater and more universal the avidity with 

 which their study is pursued. It is not only because they are a 

 never failing source of delightful occupation — it is not only be- 

 cause their study has been found by the experience of years to 

 convey nothing at all at variance with morality or religion — but 

 it is moreover because of the direct and positive benefit which 

 they are found to create both in a religious and a moral point of 

 view, that we find their study now encouraged a,nd sanctioned 

 by the enlightened and the unprejudiced public. 



