46 
MEMOIR OP LATREILLE. 
“ What, moreover, can I say to you respecting 
the works he has left, with which you are as well 
acquainted as I am myself. 
“ I should not certainly, in such a case, before 
other men and in the presence of any other assem- 
bly, have been silent respecting the works of genius 
which procure for this inanimate bust the honour 
of such an inauguration. 
“ But before conveying a full comprehension of 
the merits of him whom it represents, it would have 
been necessary to show the importance of the science, 
so much despised by the vulgar, to which he de- 
voted his long and laborious life. 
“ I should have been obliged to point out how 
all the parts of natural history are incomplete with- 
out that of insects, not only because it is in itself 
the most considerable by the number of the indivi- 
duals which it embraces, but also because it is con- 
nected with all the rest. 
“ It would have been necessary for me likewise 
to prove that it is at once the most difficult, the 
most extensive, and the most philosophical of them 
all ; since it is it which shows the phenomena of 
life and all the mysteries of instinct under the most 
singular and varied aspects ; since it is it which 
best reveals to our view the fecundity, power, and 
resources of Nature, along with its innumerable 
diversities in form and colours. 
“ I should then have to direct attention to the 
fact, that the greatest geniuses who have cultivated 
natural history ; that those who have rendered their 
