a Spence,* cumbined with tlie moral and religious insitruc- 

 tion which their writings universally convey, cannot fail 

 of increasing the number of its votaries, and thereby 

 opening "a mine of pleasure new, boundless and inex- 

 haustible." 



An objection, however, has been often urged against the 

 followers of this interesting pursuit : an objection, which 

 is indeed calculated to make a deep impression upon every 

 tender mind— and that is, the charge of inhumanity. But 

 this I think is easily obviated. " They who sea no cruelty 

 in the sports of the field, as they are called," observe the 

 authors of the Introduction to Entomology, " can never, 

 of course, consistently allege such a charge against the 

 Aurelianist ; the torture of wounded birds, of fish that 

 swallow the hook and break the line, or of the hunted hare, 

 being beyond comparison greater than those of insects 

 destroyed in the usual mode. 



But even in the views of those few who think inhumanity 

 chargeable upon the sportsman, it will be easy to place 

 considerations which may rescue the Entomolo^st from 

 such reproof. 



It is an admitted hypothesis, that in proportion as we 



* Introduction to UnComology, or Elements of the Natural 

 History of Insects, with plates, 4 vole. 8vo. 



