126 THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
greater than at first it appears. The 
whole world in which we live teems with 
life in various forms, affecting us in 
various v/nys, and every species is so 
linked with other species that to under- 
stand one you should know something of 
another, and so on from link to link ; not 
one can be omitted without leaving the 
chain incomplete, and the study of each 
strengthening and adding to our know- 
ledge of the whole ; and amongst all the 
branches of natural science Entomology 
surely holds not the most remote place 
in practical effects upon us. Insects 
attack our crops, our cattle, our food, 
clothes and possessions of all kinds ; 
they are in our ships, our houses, the 
earth, the air, the water, — in fact, where 
are they not? they do not even respect 
our sacred persons. Hoes it not concern 
us, then, to understand them ? A familiar 
instance of the advantage of knowing 
their habits is evident in the case of 
wasps. How carefully each female wasp 
we see is destroyed by us in spring, to 
save us from many a family of wasps in 
autumn! Not long ago we heard of 
thousands of pounds worth of damage 
caused by a caterpillar. IShould we not 
try to learn its history, and find out some 
means of stopping its ravages ? Who 
would not thank us for merely showing 
them how to .save their cabbages from the 
caterpillars of the white butterfly, and 
still more if we could teach them to de- 
fend themselves from the scourge of 
houses in towns, — that genus Cimex , — 
whoever studies that thoroughly will be 
a public benefactor, and deserve a statue 
iu Trafalgar Square by the side of Nelson 
and Dr. Jenner. Besides the benefits 
resulting from the study of Entomology, 
considered on the wide ground of the 
advantage of Natural Science in general, 
and also in respect of its immediate 
practical efl'ects, on both of which subjects 
far more might be said, it is something 
to have a pleasant and desirable pursuit; 
and this, like must thoroughly natural 
things, in some degree suits almost every- 
body. Small children are interested in 
it; grown-up people find much more 
pleasure and interest in their walks if 
they have the “ educated eye ” to under- 
stand the objects presented to them ; and 
as to the regular followers of the pursuit, 
or students of the Science, the discovery 
of a new species or fact gives them 
enthusiastic delight. The cattle in the 
fields see what passes around them, and 
understand nothing. Our distinction, 
and we justly value it, is that we can 
understand. Is it not right, then, to 
exercise our privilege in everything that 
we can to try to understand as much as 
possible? Great and good men, from 
Job and Solomon downwards, have been 
close observers of Nature. Poets, phi- 
losophers, most people of thought and 
feeling, — perhaps all who have not had 
all_ Nature worn out of them, — have 
found pleasure in contemplating some or 
other of the forms of creation ; and from 
the astronomer who studies distant worlds, 
to the entomologist who studies flies, we 
think them right, and would say with 
reverence. Whatever it was worth God’s 
while to make, it is worth man’s while to 
study. — A. E. 
THE COMPLAINT OF A CHEYSALIS. 
Whilst sleeping, sir, beneath the green- 
wood tree. 
And hybernaliug there most peacefully, — 
Whilst resting, as I say, beneath the 
shade, — 
An awful sound, “ Let diaries be 
made!” 
Sent through the ground, and to my 
heart a ehill 
'I'hat utterly prevents my lying still ; 
And though tucked up I am until the 
spring. 
Yet indignation finds itself a wing 
