294 THE SCHOOL OF REAUMUR 



able art of miniature. From an early age lie took an 

 interest in the life of insects, which he was destined to 

 study with passionate devotion. When not much above 

 twenty years old, he visited Denmark and Hamburg. 

 At Hamburg he examined the beautiful insect-drawings 

 of Madame Merian, and determined to draw insects 

 himself. Settling at Nurnberg he became a favourite 

 painter of miniatures, and was much employed by pass- 

 ing travellers. Greatly to the surprise of his friends, 

 he began to collect and rear insects. "Why trouble," 

 asked all Nurnberg, " about mischievous and revolting 

 creatures, which can never have been made by the 

 beneficent Creator, but probably by the devil himself?" 

 Even cultivated persons were slow to respect so eccentric 

 a taste, and agreed with Malebranche that " les hommes 

 ne sont pas faits pour consid^rer des moucherons." But 

 Roesel persisted in studying and drawing insects until 

 he had attained a skill equal to that which he had 

 admired in Madame Merian. He had many difficulties 

 to contend with ; he was unlearned, and knew no 

 foreign language ; he was untrained in anatomy or 

 natural history ; he had no microscope. But difficulties 

 like these disappear before a firm resolution. Roesel 

 got hold of Derham's Physico-Theology, Swammerdam's 

 Bihlia Naturae, and Reaumur's Histoire des Iiisectes. 

 A friendly physician taught him to dissect, and helped 

 to give to his descriptions what they called " Reinigkeit 

 des Styli." A professor of mathematics showed him 

 how to grind lenses, and to make a solar microscope, 

 which had never been seen in Nurnberg before. Roesel 

 and some few like-minded associates searched the country 

 for caterpillars and beetles, and a portfolio was soon 

 filled with exquisite drawings. The thought of publish- 

 ing naturally suggested itself, and in 1741 appeared the 



