INTRODUCTORY LETTER. 17 



tools. Nor is the fact so extraordinary as it may seem 

 at first, since " He who is wise in heart and wonderful 

 in working " is the inventor and fabricator of the appa- 

 ratus of insects ; which may be considered as a set of 

 miniature patterns drawn for our use by a Divine hand. 

 I shall hereafter give you a more detailed account of 

 some of the most striking of these instruments ; and if 

 you study insects in this view, you will be well repaid 

 for all the labour and attention you bestow upon them. 



But a more important species of instruction than any 

 hitherto enumerated may be derived from entomological 

 pursuits. If we attend to the history and manners of 

 insects, they will furnish us with many useful lessons in 

 Ethics, and from them we may learn to improve our- 

 selves in various virtues. We have indeed the inspired 

 authority of the wisest of mankind for studying them in 

 this view, since he himself wrote a treatise upon them, 

 and sends his sluggard to one for a lesson of wisdom a . 

 And if we value diligence and indefatigable industry; 

 judgement, prudence, and foresight ; economy and fru- 

 gality; if we look upon modesty and diffidence as female 

 ornaments ; if we revere parental affection — of all these, 

 and many more virtues, insects in their various instincts 

 exhibit several striking examples, as you will see in the 

 course of our correspondence. 



With respect to religious instruction insects are far 

 from unprofitable; indeed in this view Entomology 

 seems to possess peculiar advantages above every other 

 branch of Natural History. In the larger animals, 

 though we admire the consummate art and wisdom ma- 



3 1 Kings iv, 33. Prov. vi. 6—8. 

 VOL. I. c 



