180 



The Naturalist. 



complete as possible, we should spare no pains to make our collection 

 a perfect one. A view of a collection of the species of any order of 

 nature will give us a more real knowledge of that order than a perusal 

 of all the descriptions ever penned on them ; we are able to see and 

 to appreciate the nice distinctions and minute differences which divide 

 species from species, and the beautiful harmony which runs through 

 them all and unites them all into genera, and families, and groups, 

 either end of the scale so dissimilar, each link so like the next. 

 Without collections of the forms of nature we should have to draw 

 conclusions from recollection and description, which, though carefully 

 and accurately compiled, leave at best but a misty idea of the real 

 thing in the mind, and certainly cannot make us realise those special 

 characteristics, an intuitive perception of which it is one of the chief 

 aims of the naturalist to cultivate. Moreover, there is an indefinite 

 sort of charm, without speaking of its utility, in making a collection of 

 any series of natural objects — a sense of extreme satisfaction in getting 

 together kindred species, of filling up the blanks one by one in one's 

 cabinet, each one getting more difficult to fill as the process of com- 

 pletion advances, and often the thirst for the possession of new 

 specimens is far stronger than the unmingled desire to know some- 

 thing of the nature of what we are after. Yet the one necessitates, 

 to some degree, the other ; no one who is not blind or senseless can 

 well collect insects, even in the most superficial way, without getting 

 a vast amount of real practical knowledge about their nature, habits, 

 appearances, and resorts, and the best collector is he who looks 

 furthest into the hidden places of nature, who obtains her answers to 

 his queries by exerting the most vigilance, and patience the most 

 inexhaustible ; and a person must indeed be of a stagnant tempera- 

 ment who, being a spectator of the various processes of nature as 

 exemplified in the economy of her creatures, can refrain from admiring 

 the manner and meditating on the cause. 



But this brings us down a step lower, namely, that there is some 

 value in the study of entomology, even if its disciple follows it as a 

 mere recreation — simply as a sugarer for moths, or a catcher of 

 beetles ; even apart from the contingent probability that from a mere 

 collector he may develop into a true naturalist, the influences of nature 

 cannot but be beneficial, even though their subject be unconscious of 

 them. Will anyone assert that after the labour and heat of a day 

 epent in the wearying occupations of the town, it is not in every way 

 for the good, bodily as well as mental, of the working man, whether 

 his work be of hands or head, that he spend his evenings among 



