OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 13 
weight, the above enumeration seems sufficient to shelter the votaries of — 
this pleasing science from the charge of folly. 
But we do not wish to rest our defence upon authorities alone ; let the 
voice of reason be heard, and our justification will be complete. The en- 
tomologist, or, to speak more generally, the naturalist (for on this question 
of Cui bono? every student in all departments of Natural History is con- 
cerned), if the following considerations be allowed their due weight, may 
claim a much higher station amongst the learned than has hitherto been 
conceded to him. 
There are two principal avenues to knowledge—the study of words and 
the study of things. Skill in the learned languages being often necessary 
to enable us to acquire knowledge in the former way, is usually considered 
as knowledge itself; so that no one asks Cui bono? when a person devotes 
himself to the study of verbal criticism, and employs his time in correcting 
the errors that have crept into the text of an ancient writer. Indeed it 
must be owned, though perhaps too much stress is sometimes laid upon it, 
that this is very useful to enable us to ascertain his true meaning. But 
after all, words are but the arbitrary signs of ideas, and have no value 
independent of those ideas, further than what arises from congruity and 
harmony, the mind being dissatisfied when an idea is expressed by in- 
adequate words, and the ear offended when their collocation is inhar- 
monious. Toaccount the mere knowledge of words, therefore, as wisdom, 
is to mistake the cask for the wine, and the casket for the gem. 1 say all 
this because knowledge of words is often. extolled beyond its just merits, 
and put for all wisdom; while knowledge of things, especially of the pro- 
ductions of nature, is derided as if it were mere folly. We should re- 
collect that God hath condescended to instruct us by both these ways, 
and therefore neither of them should be depreciated. He hath set before 
us his word and his world, The former is the great avenue to truth and 
knowledge by the study of words, and, as being the immediate and autho- 
ritative revelation of his will, is entitled to our principal attention ; the 
latter leads us to the same conclusions, though less directly, by the study 
of things, which stands next in rank to that of God’s word, and before 
that of any work of man. And whether we direct our eyes to the planets 
rolling in their orbits, and endeavour to trace the laws by which they 
are guided through the vast of space, whether we analyse those powers 
and agents by which all the operations of nature are performed, or whether 
we consider the various productions of this our globe, from the mighty 
cedar to the microscopic mucor — from the giant elephant to the invisible 
mite, still we are studying the works and wonders of our God. The book, 
to whatever page we turn, is written by the finger of Him who created us ; 
and in it, provided our minds be rightly disposed, we may read his eternal 
verities. And the more accurate and enlarged our knowledge of his 
works, the better shall we be able to understand his word; and the more 
“Well then,” rejoined Cuvier, “I advise you to dissect an insect. I leave the 
species to your own choice: it may be the largest you can find; and having done 
this, review your supposed discovery, and if you still think it exact, I will take 
your word for it.” The young man, a friend of M, Audouin, submitted with a good 
grace to this test, and having acquired more dexterity and more caution, came 
shortly to thank Cuyier for his advice, and to confess his former mistake, ‘ You 
see,” said the latter, smiling, “ that my touchstone was not bad.” (Audouin—Notice 
sur George Cuvier. Ann, Soc. Ent. H: France, i. 317.) 
