INTRODUCTORY LETTER. 3 



and allure us, enchanting us by their beauty, regaling us 

 by their fragrance, and interesting us as much by their 

 subservience to our luxuries and comfort, as to the ne- 

 cessary support and well-being of our life. Beasts, birds, 

 and fishes also, in some one or other of these respects, 

 attract our notice ; but insects, unfortunate insects, are 

 so far from attracting us, that we are accustomed to ab- 

 hor them from our childhood. The first knowledge that 

 we get of them is as tormentors; they are usually pointed 

 out to us by those about us as ugly, filthy, and noxious 

 creatures ; and the whole insect world, butterflies per- 

 haps and some few others excepted, are devoted by one 

 universal ban to proscription and execration, as fit only 

 to be trodden under our feet and crushed : so that often, 

 before we can persuade ourselves to study them, we have 

 to remove from our minds prejudices deeply rooted and 

 of long standing. 



Another principal reason which has contributed to 

 keep Entomology in the back ground arises from the di- 

 minutive size of the objects of which it treats. Being 

 amongst the most minute of nature's productions, they 

 do not so readily catch the eye of the observer ; and 

 when they do, mankind in general are so apt to estimate 

 the worth and importance of things by their bulk, that 

 because we usually measure them by the duodecimals of 

 an inch instead of by the foot or by the yard, insects are 

 deemed too insignificant parts of the creation, and of too 

 little consequence to its general welfare, to render them 

 worthy of any serious attention or study. What small 

 foundation there is for such prejudices and misconcep- 

 tion, I shall endeavour to show in the course of our fu- 

 ture correspondence ; my object now, as the champion 



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