Freeman's Life of Kir by. 3549 



the love of order which Mr. Kirby's study of Natural History had so 

 deeply implanted in him, all my letters are folded across the sheet, so 

 as to be of the same breadth of about two inches, and have an index 

 on the back of each, referring to the various subjects (often 15 to 20) 

 of the letter, which he marked in it by large figures in brackets, so as 

 readily to catch the eye ; and they were then docketed with red tape 

 into a packet for each year." — P. 265. 



The acquaintance thus commenced : — 



" Chancing one evening in August, 1805," says Mr. Spence, " when 

 walking on the Humber bank, to meet my friend George Rodwell, 

 Esq., then a resident at Hull, he told me he was about to visit Bar- 

 ham in a few days, and said if I had any insects to send to Mr. Kirby 

 he should be happy to convey them. This offer I gladly accepted, 

 and prepared a box, which was taken by Mr. Rodwell, along with a 

 letter, which is placed first in Mr. Kirby's packet of mine of 1805, and 

 which it is necessary to give here to make his reply intelligible." — 

 P. 266. 



We omit the correspondence, in order to make room for the follow- 

 ing account, from the pen of Mr. Spence, of the share of each author 

 in the production of the ' Introduction to Entomology,' the idea of 

 which originated with that gentleman. 



" In our Preface, p. xxi. [Here, and throughout this chapter, the 

 5th edition (1828) is referred to] we have declined stating which Let- 

 ters were written by each ; and in the thirty-seven years which have 

 elapsed since we ' excused ourselves from gratifying the curiosity ' to 

 ascertain this fact (if any suck were ever felt), no clue to it has been 

 given, except the disclaimer by Mr. Kirby, in the advertisement to 

 our third and fourth volumes, of agreeing with me in opinion on the 

 theory of instinct in the Letter on that subject, Vol. ii., and the re- 

 marks, in Vol. iv. p. 19 — 33: both, as he wished it to be stated, writ- 

 ten by me. 



" As this disclaimer, however, has broken the charm of secrecy, and 

 as some future ingenious entomologist may think it worth his while to 

 endeavour, from internal evidence, still further to solve the mystery, 

 in attempting which he would be sure to fall into gross errors, it has 

 seemed to me best (and Mr. Freeman coincides with me) to give here 

 the entire list of the Letters of our work which were ultimately agreed 

 on, and which vary in some respects from that proposed above, with 

 the name of the writer affixed to each, and such observations as are 

 necessary to make the information correct and complete. 



