32 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 



the present very general attention to Chemistry how bene- 

 ficial would be the consequence if Entomology were equally 

 cultivated ; and I shall conclude this paragraph with what I 

 think may be laid down as an incontrovertible axiom : — That 

 the profit we derive from the works of creation will be in 

 proportion to the accuracy of our knowledge of them and their 

 properties. 



I trust I have now said enough to convince you and every 

 thinking man that the study of insects, so far from being vain, 

 idle, trifling, or unprofitable, may be attended with very im- 

 portant advantages to mankind, and ought at least to be placed 

 upon a level with many other branches of science, against 

 which such accusations are never alleged. 



But I must not conceal from you that there are objectors 

 who will still return to the charge. They will say, " We 

 admit that the pursuits of the entomologist are important 

 when he directs his views to the destruction of noxious in- 

 sects ; the discovery of new ones likely to prove beneficial to 

 man ; and to practical experiments upon their medical and 

 economical properties. But where are the entomologists that 

 in fact pursue this course ? Do they not in reality wholly dis- 

 regard the economical department of their science, and content 

 themselves with making as large a collection of species as pos- 

 sible ; ascertaining the names of such as are already described ; 

 describing new ones ; and arranging the whole in their cabi- 

 nets under certain families and genera ? And can a study with 

 these sole ends in view deserve a better epithet than trifling ? 

 Even if the entomologist advance a step further, and invent 

 a new system for the distribution of all known insects, can 

 his laborious undertaking be deemed any other than busy 

 idleness ? What advantage does the world derive from having 

 names given to ten or twenty thousand insects, of which 

 numbers are not bigger than a pin's head, and of which pro- 

 bably not a hundredth part will ever be of any use to man- 

 kind ? " 



Now in answer to this supposed objection, which I have 

 stated as forcibly as I am able, and which, as it may be, and 

 often is, urged against every branch of Natural History as at 



