8 
AN ADDRESS TO 
of the species when at large, in order to be able by analogy 
to trace with what other species it has affinity. He who aims 
to be a good Entomologist will also not omit to pay his re¬ 
spects to u Flora,” for most insects being vegetable feeders, 
an acquaintance with Botany is very essential. Now Bo¬ 
tanists are a much more numerous class than Entomologists, 
and the pursuit is one looked generally on with more respect; 
but inasmuch as insects are endued with volition and powers 
of locomotion, they claim a higher place than plants in the 
kingdom of Nature, and those who make their study the re¬ 
creation of their lives will continuously reap benefits from it, 
which at first they little anticipated. 
And in the first place they will soon discover practically 
the littleness of their knowledge,—and what more conducive 
to check presumption or conceit ? he who penetrates but a 
little depth below the surface of any one branch of science, 
soon finds before him numerous facts and ideas of which, 
before he penetrated to this extent, he had no conception; 
reasoning therefore by analogy he concludes that all other 
branches of science are equally pregnant with interesting 
results to reward the active investigator. Perhaps he had 
nearly begun to conclude that he knew “ pretty nearly every 
thing; now he finds that even in this one branch of science 
what he does not know is infinitely more than what he does 
know, so that he will feel inclined to exclaim with a cele¬ 
brated living Entomologist*— 
“ If Entomology became any one’s daily and favourite 
occupation, there would be matter enough for observation, 
investigation, correction and discoveries for centuries of years, 
without the least sensible exhausting of the object,”—and 
if Nature herself is thus infinite, what must be her Creator! 
* Herr C. A. Dolirn, President of the Entomological Society of 
Stettin. & } 
