3688 Insects. 



never fully realize; and as soon as I was free lo roam at will, my first 

 expedition was to the coast. Then all my imaginings of greatness 

 and beauty, were absorbed in the sense of vastness and grandeur im- 

 pressed upon me by the ocean; and the thought of the omnipotence 

 of its Creator and a love for his works, with a corresponding appreci- 

 ation of the littleness of man and his doings, became fixed in my soul. 

 I thanked God I was a native of the land, 



" Clipped in with the sea 

 That chides the banks of England, Scotland, Wales," 



because, above all things else, this pleasure of seeing the great sea 

 could always be easily acquired. 



Each year, as summer advances, it is the fashion for every citizen 

 that is at all " respectable," to go to the sea-side. It is no doubt a 

 salutary thing for the multitude who have for twelve months been im- 

 mersed in the cares of "how to live," to wash and be clean; — to 

 clear out the "perilous stuff" from their brains; — to gain a few weeks' 

 respite from their toil and trouble, and have the opportunity of think- 

 ing wherefore they live, and why all the bounty of Nature to which 

 they have been strangers is spread out and continually renewed. Pity 

 is it, as all our sea-side resorts too plainly show, that when the man 

 of business does come out of his chrysalis, from his total ignorance 

 of Nature's productions, he has no proper appreciation or enjoyment 

 thereof; and so the frivolities of town life are imported to the coast, 

 to enable him to kill the time which, in the absence of his grub-like 

 avocations, hangs so heavily on his hands. If our population had 

 but an initiation into Natural History, then every year, when the mul- 

 titude returned to their homes, w r hat a number of discoveries w T ould 

 they bring back, which, if not positively new to science, would be of 

 the highest interest and use for their own instruction ! 



I fear this is a trite subject, but it is one on which I am earnest. 

 Only the other day, I saw an old gentleman who, from his youth, had 

 held for his motto "Business must be attended to;" and he was an ex- 

 ample of the great class that attends to nothing else. But from long- 

 continued exclusive devotion to business his health had latterly failed; 

 so he consulted a physician, who, among other questions, asked his 

 age. " Sixty," was the reply. "So you think," said the doctor, "but 

 you are really seventy-five, and I can give you little hope of relief." 

 And so he, like thousands of others, will "die, and make no sign" that 

 he ever knew anything of the glories surrounding him, the investiga- 

 tion of which would have afforded intense happiness, and doubtless 

 have lengthened his existence. 



