4 INTRODUCTORY LETTER. 



and advocate of Entomology, is to point out to you her 

 comparative advantages, and to remove the veil which 

 has hitherto concealed those attractions, and that grace 

 and beauty, which entitle her to equal admiration at least 

 with her sister branches of Natural History. 



In estimating the comparative value of the study of 

 any department in this branch of science, we ought to 

 contrast it with others, as to the rank its objects hold in 

 the scale of being; the amusement and instruction which 

 the student may derive from it ; and its utility to society 

 at large. With respect to public utility, the study of 

 each of the three kingdoms may perhaps be allowed to 

 stand upon nearly an equal footing ; I shall not, there- 

 fore, enter upon that subject till I come to consider the 

 question Cut bono ? and to point out the uses of Ento- 

 mology, but confine myself now to the two first of these 

 circumstances. 



As to rank, I must claim for the entomologist some 

 degree of precedence before the mineralogist and the 

 botanist. The mineral kingdom, whose objects are nei- 

 ther organized nor sentient, stands certainly at the foot 

 of the scale. Next above this is the vegetable, whose 

 lovely tribes, though not endued with sensation, are or- 

 ganized. In the last and highest place ranks the animal 

 world, consisting of beings that are both organized and 

 sentient. To this scale of precedence the great modern 

 luminary of Natural History, notwithstanding that Bo- 

 tany was always his favourite pursuit, has given his sanc- 

 tion, acknowledging in the preface to his Fauna Snecica, 

 that although the vegetable kingdom is nobler than the 

 mineral, yet the animal is more excellent than the vege- 

 table. Now it is an indisputable axiom, I should think, 



