AN 



INTRODUCTION 



TO 



ENTOMOLOGY. 



LETTER I. 



Dear Sir, 

 1 CANNOT wonder that an active mind like yours should experience no 

 small degree of tedium in a situation so far removed, as you represent your 

 new residence to be, from the " busy hum of men." Nothing certainly 

 can compensate for the want of agreeable society ; but since your case, in 

 this respect, admits of no remedy but patience, I am glad you are desirous 

 of turning your attention to some pursuit which may amuse you in the 

 intervals of severer study, and in part supply the void of which you com- 

 plain. I am not a little flattered that you wish to be informed which class 

 in the three kingdoms of nature is, in my opinion, most likely to answer 

 your purpose ; at the same time intimating that you feel inclined to give 

 the preference to Entomology, provided some objections can be satisfacto- 

 rily obviated, which you have been accustomed to regard as urged with a 

 considerable semblance of reason against the cultivation of that science. 



Mankind in general, not excepting even philosophers, are prone to mag- 

 nify, often beyond its just merit, the science or pursuit to which they have 

 addicted themselves, and to depreciate any that seems to stand in compe- 

 tition with their favorite : like the redoubted champions of romance, each 

 thinks himself bound to take the field against every one that will not sub- 

 scribe to the peerless beauty and accomplishments of his own Dulcinea. 

 In such conflict for pre-eminence I know no science that, in this country, 

 has come off worse than Entomology : her champions hitherto have been 

 so few, and their eflforts so unavailing, that all her rival sisters have been 

 exalted above her ; and I believe there is scarcely any branch of Natural 

 History that has had fewer British admirers. While Botany boasts of her 

 hosts, she, though not her inferior either in beauty, symmetry, or grace, 

 has received the homage of a very slender train indeed. Since therefore 

 the merits of Entomology have been so little acknowledged, you will not 

 deem it invidious if I advocate the cause of this distressed damsel, and 

 endeavor to effect her restoration to her just rights, privileges, and rank. 

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