PREFACE. xili 
I have been pretty full, showing the extent and 
importance of the manufacture to Great Britain, 
as well as to many Continental States. If I have 
descended to too statistical a detail, I trust the 
importance of the subject will make amends for 
what naturalists might consider as a fault. 
In the selection of illustrations, I have in 
some instances been guided more by the singu- 
larity of the shape and markings of the insect, 
than by the beauty and variety of the colours. 
It is not pretended that the figures are by any 
means entitled to consideration as works of art, 
but, such as they are, it is presumed that a 
work, requiring the same labour, and executed 
in a similar style, has not before been offered to 
the public at so cheap a rate; even on the Conti- 
nent, where the price of labour is so much less 
than in Great Britain, and where paper is little 
more than half the price that it is in this country. 
I have chosen the Linnean arrangement in 
preference to that of Latreille, or other cele- 
brated modern authors: not that I think it 
more perfect, but because it will be more easily 
