I 
LETTER II, 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 
In my last I gave you a general view of the science of Entomology, and 
endeavoured to prove to you that it possesses attractions and beauty suf- 
ficient to reward any student who may profess himself its yotary. I am 
now to consider it in a less alluring light, as a pursuit attended by no 
small degree of obloquy, in consequence of certain objections thought to 
be urged with great force against it. To obviate these, and remove every 
scruple from your mind, shall be the business of the present letter. 
Two principal objections are usually alleged with great confidence 
against the study and pursuit of insects. By some they are derided as \ 
trifling and unimportant, and deemed an egregious waste of time and | 
talents; by others they are reprobated as unfeeling and cruel, and as } 
tending to harden the heart. 
I. Ishall begin with the first of these objections — that the entomo- 
logist is a mere trifler. As for the silly outery and abuse of the ignorant | 
vulgar, who are always ready to laugh at what they do not understand, / 
and because insects are minute objects conclude that the study of them \ 
must be a childish pursuit, I shall not waste words upon what I so cor- ) 
dially despise. But since even learned men and philosophers, from a” 
partial and prejudiced view of the subject, having recourse to this 
common-place logic, are sometimes disposed to regard all inquiry into 
these minutize of nature as useless and idle, and the mark of a little mind ; 
to remove such prejudice and misconceptions [ shall now dilate somewhat 
upon the subject of Cui bono? 
When we see many wise and learned men pay attention to any particular 
department of science, we may naturally conclude that it is on account of 
some profit and instruction which they foresee may be derived from it ; 
and therefore in defending Entomology I shall first have recourse to the 
argumentum ad verecundiam, and mention the great names that have culti- 
vated or recommended it. : 
We may begin the list with the first man that ever lived upon the\ 
earth, for we are told that he gave a name to every living creature}, | 
amongst which insects must be included; and to give an appropriate | 
name to an object necessarily requires some knowledge of its distin- 
guishing properties. Indeed one of the principal pleasures and employ- 
ments of the paradisiacal state was probably the study of the various 
works of creation.2 Before the Fall the book of nature was the Bible of 
man, in which he could read the perfections and attributes of the invisible 
Godhead 8, and in it, as ina mirror, behold an image of the things of the 
spiritual world. Moses also appears to have been conversant with our 
little animals, and to have studied them with some attention. This he has 
shown, not only by being aware of the distinctions which separate the 
various tribes of grasshoppers, crickets, &c. (Gryllus, L.) into different 
1 Gen. ii, 19, 2 Linn, Fr. Suec. Pref. 5 Rom. i. 19, 20. 
