46 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 



system of the science, still higher claims can be urged. 

 Suppose that at this moment our dictionaries of the 

 French and German languages were so very defective, 

 that we were unable by the use of them to profit from 

 the discoveries of their philosophers ; the labours of a 

 Michaelis being a sealed book to our theologists, and 

 those of La Place to our astronomers. On this supposi- 

 tion, would not one of the most important literary un- 

 dertakings be the compilation of more perfect dictionaries, 

 and would not the humblest contributor to such an end 

 be deemed most meritoriously engaged ? Now precisely 

 what an accurate dictionary of a particular language is 

 towards enabling the world to participate in the disco- 

 veries published in that language, is a system of Ento- 

 mology towards enabling mankind to derive advantage 

 from any discoveries relative to insects. A good system 

 of insects containing all the known species, arranged in 

 appropriate genera, families, orders, and classes, is in 

 fact a dictionary, putting it within our power to ascertain 

 the name of any given insect, and thus to learn what lias 

 been observed respecting its properties and history as 

 readily as we determine the meaning of a new word in a 

 lexicon. In order to impress upon you more forcibly 

 the absolute need of such a system, I must enter into still 

 further detail. 



There is scarcely a country in which several thousand 

 insects may not be found. Now, without some scientific 

 arrangement, how is the observer of a new fact respect- 

 ing any one of them, to point out to distant countries 

 and to posterity the particular insect he had in view ? 

 Suppose an observer in England were to find a certain 

 beetle which he had demonstrated to be a specific for 



