THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S 
WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
No. 53.] SATURDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1857. [Price 1 d. 
EDUCATIONAL. 
It is at this period of the year that a 
large number of our readers resume 
their studies, and, to a certain extent, 
turn their backs on Entomology. Most 
of the scholastic establishments of the 
metropolis are now at work, and in a 
few weeks Oxford and Cambridge will 
both get the steam up. October is thus 
associated with many of us from early 
life as a month peculiarly devoted to 
study : after the sight-seeing and holi- 
day-making of Continental tours, Scotch 
or Irish jaunting, or sea-side dissipation, 
it is comparatively a relief to sit down 
soberly again at the desk, and with re- 
newed vigour to work the brain-machine. 
But if Entomology can no longer be 
pursued actively out-of-doors, may it not 
claim also a share in the in-door labours P 
As was remarked in a recent number 
(No. 51), in an article addressed to 
G'oleopterists, and which perhaps many 
of our butterfly-collectors failed to pe- 
ruse, “Entomologists have other work 
to perform than simply to collect. Im- 
portant as it is, at all times, to increase 
our stores (for we can do nothing without 
material to proceed with), we should re- 
member that even ‘ material ’ is only of 
real value in proportion as we can turn 
it to after-account, for the advancement 
of knowledge and the consequent benefit 
of Science. It is but little use that our 
summer captures have been superb, if 
they are to be shut up in a store-box 
during the winter, and no general de- 
ductions are to be drawn from them.” 
Now the coming period of the year is 
that very portion of it which appears in 
our climate to be purposely intended for 
the in-door investigation of our insect- 
treasures; the season is with us provi- 
dentially divided into two distinct por- 
tions, in one of which we spend every 
spare hour in the woods and fields, 
gathering stores of health and strength 
at the same time that we amass our col- 
lections of insects, and observe facts in 
insect-life more numerous than we can 
then chronicle; in the second portion 
collecting is given up as a bad job, and 
the evenings are spent in-doors, where, 
by a merry fire, and with good candle- 
light, lamp-light or gas-light, we pro- 
ceed to sort and arrange our insects, 
our observations and our ideas. In 
the infancy of a science it is almost 
impossible to foresee what results will 
ensue from it when it becomes more 
matured. No geologist fifty years ago 
would have conceived it possible that 
a geological work could have been 
written of so readable, generalizing a 
nature as Hugh Miller’s posthumous 
work, ‘ The Testimony of the Rocks ’ 
has proved, — a work which certainly 
enlarges our views of Creation in the 
past ages of this planet, and raises the 
B 
