AN 



INTRODUCTION 



TO 



ENTOMOLOGY. 



LETTER 1. 



Dear Sir, 



I CANNOT wonder that an active mind like yours should 

 experience no small degree of tedium in a situation so far 

 removed, as you represent your new residence to be, from 

 the ^^busy hum of men." Nothing certainly can compensate 

 for the want of agreeable society ; but since your case, in 

 this respect, admits of no remedy but patience, I am glad 

 you are desirous of turning your attention to some pursuit 

 which may amuse you in the intervals of severer study, 

 and in part supply the void of which you complain. I am 

 not a little flattered that you wish to be informed which 

 class in the three kingdoms of nature is, in my opinion, most 

 likely to answer your purpose ; at the same time intimating 

 that you feel inclined to give the preference to Entomology, 

 provided some objections can be satisfactorily obviated, which 

 you have been accustomed to regard as urged with a consi- 

 derable semblance of reason against the cultivation of that 

 science. 



Mankind in general, not excepting even philosophers, are 

 prone to magnify, often beyond its just merit, the science or 

 pursuit to which they have addicted themselves, and to de- 

 preciate any that seems to stand in competition with their 

 favourite : like the redoubted champions of romance, each 

 thinks himself bound to take the field against every one that 



VOL. I. B 



