OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 49 



the above enumeration seems sufficient to shelter the votaries of this pleas- 

 ing science from the charge of folly. 



But we do not wish to rest our defence upon authorities alone ; let the 

 voice of reason be heard, and our justification will be complete. The 

 entomologist, or, to speak more generally, the naturalist (for on this ques- 

 tion of Cui bono ? every student in all departments of Natural History is 

 concerned), if the following considerations be allowed their due weight, 

 may claim a much higher station amongst the learned than has hitherto 

 been conceded to him. 



There are two principal avenues to knowledge — the study of words 

 and the study of things. Skill in the leai'ned languages being often neces- 

 sary to enable us to acquire knowledge in the former way, is usually 

 considered as knowledge itself; so that no one asks Cui bono 1 when a 

 person devotes himself to the study of verbal criticism, and employs his 

 time in correcting the errors that have crept into the text of an ancient 

 writer. Indeed it must be owned, though perhaps too much stress is 

 sometimes laid upon it, that this is very useful to enable us to ascertain his 

 true meaning. But after all, words are but the arbitrary signs of ideas, 

 and have no value independent of those ideas, further than what arises 

 from congruity and harmony, the mind being dissatisfied when an idea is 

 expressed by inadequate words, and the ear offended when their collocation 

 is inharmonious. To account the mere knowledge of words, therefore, as 

 wisdom, is to mistake the cask for the wine, and the casket for the gem. 

 I say all this because knowledge of words is often extolled beyond its just 

 merits, and put for all wisdom ; while knowledge of things, especially ot 

 the productions of nature, is derided as if it were mere folly. We should 

 recollect that God hath condescended to instruct us by both these ways, 

 and therefore neither of them should be depreciated. He hath set before 

 us his word and his world. The former is the great avenue to truth and 

 knowledge by the study of ivords, and, as being the immediate and au- 

 thoritative revelation of his will, is entitled to our principal attention ; the 

 latter leads us to the same conclusions, though less directly, by the study 

 of things, which stands next in rank to that of God's word, and before 

 that of any work of man. And whether we direct our eyes to the planets 

 rolling in their orbits, and endeavor to trace the laws by which they are 

 guided through the vast of space, whether we analyze those powers and 

 agents by which all the operations of nature are performed, or whether we 

 consider the various productions of this our globe, from the mighty cedar 

 to the microscopic mucor — from the giant elephant to the invisible mite, 

 still we are studying the works and wonders of our God. The book, to 

 whatever page we turn, is written by the finger of him who created us ; 

 and in it, provided our minds be rightly disposed, we may read his eternal 



Audouin's presence, a young man who had ventured fo speak to him of some remarkable 

 peculiarity which he fancied he had discovered in dissecting a human subject. "No," 

 replied the medical student. "Well then," rejoined Cuvier, "I advise you to dissect an 

 insect. I leave the species to your own choice : it may be the largest you can find ; and 

 having done this, review your supposed discovery, and if you still think it exact, I will 

 take your word for it." The young man, a friend of M. Au'douin, submitted with a good 

 grace to this test, and having acquired more dexterity and more caution, came shortly to 

 thank Cuvier for his advice, and to confess his former mistake. " You see," said the latwsr, 

 smiling, " that my touchstone was not bad." ( Audouin — " Notice sur George Cuvier." Ann. 

 Sac. Ent. de France, i. 317.) 



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