CONCLUDING REMARKS. 89 



greatest. It is not that several very distinct peculiarities 

 of structure which might lead at once to generic characters 

 are not to be observed in certain species of the family ; but 

 then, unfortunately for a certain class of naturaUsts, each 

 of these peculiarities is so gradually shaded off into some 

 one of the others, that it is impossible to fix accurately 

 the place where any of them absolutely ceases. A strange 

 paradox is the consequence ; namely, that in those very 

 places where Nature is most perfectly displayed to our 

 view, she is often thought to be the most difficult to com- 

 prehend. 



It has moreover been no little misfortune to the science 

 that the study of exotic insects should have been compara- 

 tively neglected. The common saying, that we ought first to 

 be well acquainted with our own indigenous insects before 

 we meddle with exotic, is erroneous, inasmuch as to com- 

 ply with it is impossible. It has led to notions of natural 

 genera and natural families^ that depended more on the 

 lextent of the cabinets and collections studied by the ento- 



^"Dispositioinsectorum sistitxiivisiones siveconjunctiones eorum; et est 

 artificialis qua classes et oidines, vel naturalis quae genera, species, et 

 varietates docet." Phil. Enl. 78. 



Linnaeus falls into the same mistake, when he says '* Classis et ordo est 

 sapientiae, genus et species Naturas opus.'' Syst. Nat. i. 13. 



It is curious to observe the inconsistencies into which the most sagacious 

 men are led by erroneous opinions. Fabricius, after having laid down as 

 above that g'ericra are natural, thus defines them : " Genera tot sunt quot 

 similiter constructa instrumenta cibaria proferunl diversae species natu- 

 rales." Phil. Ent. 80. From which it must evidestly follow that tl>e 

 instTumenta cibaria afford natural characters. Yet soon after he says, " Di«- 

 positionem artificiaiem a solis instrumentis cibariis desanipsimus." Phil. 

 Ent. 85. That is, from the very organs that he had previously made to 

 afford characlers proper for a natural classification ! 



