By the Rev. T. A. Marshall. 



57 



looking with an equal eye upon the scorpion and the bird of para- 

 dise ; not devoted to the idol of size, the mite should be to him as 

 the rhinoceros; having a solemn sense of the dignity of truth, 

 remembering that a teacher who speaks inaccurately is like the false 

 prophet out of whose mouth came frogs. For his personal qualities, 

 he should be hardy and abstemious, ready to face danger and forego 

 luxury ; a lover of travel, of the sea and its wonderful sights, of the 

 mountains and deserts; courteous to strangers, skilful to extract know- 

 ledge from the rude and ignorant, and to conciliate savages. To 

 his literary attainments no bounds can be set ; for in these days the 

 interdependence of the sciences is so thorough that it is no longer 

 possible to pursue one successfully without a knowledge of many. 

 Not to be too diffuse, let us take the entomological naturalist as a 

 type of his class. The attainments necessary for him are a good 

 answer to the wondering questions of those who cannot conceive 

 how such a study as entomology can involve serious efforts. In 

 the first place the student of entomology finds himself face to face 

 with a literature about equal to that of the classics. He can never 

 hope to attain a thorough acquaintance with more than one depart- 

 ment, which he must choose for himself ; for the rest he requires a 

 general knowledge, enough to enable him upon occasion to refer to 

 sources of information exterior to his own subject. He will soon 

 notice that the books he consults, and especially those of older date^ 

 are not free from errors : these it will be his business to avoid and 

 correct. He must be possessed of a fair knowledge of botany,, 

 chemistry, meteorology, agriculture, physical geography, and, in 

 fact, of as many ologies as possible. His proficiency in each, with- 

 out amounting to that of a specialist, should at least be rather above 

 the average found in educated men. A good knowledge of languages 

 is an absolute necessity. The two classical languages are a matter 

 of course. The tongues of modern Europe in which entomological 

 literature lies enshrined, are German, English, French, Italian, 

 Butch, Spanish, Greek, Russian, and Swedish. But since no 

 scholar can be simultaneously possessed of all these, it has been 

 agreed on all hands that writers, whose vernacular is at all out of the 

 way, shall be bound to translate their works, or have them translated, 



