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entomology; 
By the EDITOR. 
‘ u T SHOULD ha’ forgot it ; I should certainly ha’ forgot it,” 
X was the exclamation of Mr. Samuel Weller on a well- 
known occasion ; and it was the same phenomenon which acted 
thus upon the mind of that distinguished character that recalled 
to the recollection of the present writer an almost forgotten 
intention to say a few words in praise of the study of Entomo- 
logy. I can hardly hope to produce anything at all equal to 
those flowers of eloquence which bloomed in Mr. Weller’s 
valentine under the genial influence of “ nine-penn’orth of 
brandy-and-water, luke ; ” but the spring of the year seems to 
be a peculiarly appropriate season for the publication of a plea 
for entomology, a department of natural history the scientific 
importance of which seems hardly to be sufficiently recognised, 
and I must trust to the good nature of the reader to forgive 
any deficiencies that may be apparent in the present article 
under the comparison that I have so injudiciously provoked. 
It must be confessed that there were few indications of spring 
in the weather at the time when the shopwindows this year 
displayed those tempting absurdities which, we may presume, a 
good many people find pleasure in sending to each other, seeing 
that their delivery leads to the practical result of a great in- 
crease in the postman’s labour ; but, on the other hand, the 
matter to which I wish to direct the reader’s attention has its 
interest at all periods of the year, although there is, perhaps, a 
special fitness at the present season in delivering a lecture on 
the study of entomology. For while it is quite true that even 
in winter many exceedingly interesting insects are to be met 
with, generally by hunting them up in their places of conceal- 
ment among moss, under the bark of trees, under stones, and 
in other recondite places, it must be confessed that the ento- 
mologist’s great harvest is to be reaped during the other three 
seasons of the year, and it is certainly advantageous for the 
beginner to commence his researches at a time when the 
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