20 



OBJECTIONS ANSWEEED. 



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 entomologist, or, to speak more ge- 

 nerally, the naturalist (for on this question of Cui bono ? every 

 student in all departments of Natural History is concerned), 

 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 lan- 

 guages being often necessary to enable us to acquire know- 

 ledge 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 inadequate words, and the ear offended 

 when their collocation is inharmonious. To account the mere 

 knowledge of words, therefore, as wisdom, is to mistake the 

 cask for the wine, and the casket for the gem. I 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 productions of nature, is derided as if it were 

 mere folly. We should recollect 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 



mitted with a good grace to this test, and having acquired more dexterity 

 and more caution, came shortly to thank Cuvier for his advice, and to confess 

 his former mistake. " You see," said the latter, smiling, " that my touchstone 

 was not had." (Audouin — >" Notice sur George Cuvier." Any}. Sac. Ent. de 

 France, i. 317.) 



