8 
PREFACE. 
vings * ; of the incessant labour and anxiety which a periodi- 
cal would entail upon me ; of numerous minor difficulties to 
which an author is exposed in the different stages of his 
work, and the little encouragement given to expensive works 
of art : — these have rendered the British Entomology a heavy 
tax for many years, and I have only been encouraged in my 
progress, by a desire to fulfil my promise to the Subscribers, 
and with the prospect of making it generally useful to those 
who are engaged in scientific pursuits. I now trust that the 
attention which has been paid to every department will re- 
commend this work to those who have withheld from pur- 
chasing it, from their avowed and just objection to taking 
publications in numbers, and as it will, I trust, become the 
basis for a well-grounded knowledge of insects, I may antici- 
pate some remuneration from other sources. It is also most 
earnestly hoped that those Subscribers who have discontinued 
taking the Work, will now do me the justice to complete 
their copies, without which I must be subjected to great loss, 
and their own volumes will be of no value after a short pe- 
riod, as the stock is in the course of being perfected by re- 
printing the deficient parts. 
Although I believe that I have never neglected to acknow- 
ledge any obligations in the course of publication, I should 
be ungrateful not to avail myself of this opportunity to re- 
peat my thanks for the many contributions, both of Insects 
and Plants, which have been received from scientific men for 
so long a period, as well as to those wdiose names are re- 
corded in the following List of Subscribers, who, by their 
steady and continued support, have so handsomely assisted 
in bringing my labours to a successful termination. Neither 
can I be unmindful of the blessings that have been bestowed 
upon me of health, strength and perseverance, which have 
enabled me to complete this Work on the day I anticipated, 
when the second number was published the end of January, 
1824. 
* To enable those who are ignorant of the nature of such undertakings, 
to form some conception of their risk and magnitude, it may be here stated, 
that the colouring alone of the Plates has already cost upwards of £3000. 
London, Dec. 1839. 
