ACTING STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 
9 
that the incautious traveller may not stumble in upon them un¬ 
awares, and get his brains kicked out by them before he knows 
what he is about. 
I am well aware that it is impossible to please everybody, and 
that many men are of a very different opinion from those who take 
fright at every scientific term, actually holding that nothing can 
be worth reading, which, as a general rule, is written in such plain 
and popular language that it can be easily understood. But, 
because one author writes in a clear and intelligible style, it does 
not follow that he lacks depth of research and profundity of con¬ 
ception. Because another author indulges in muddy and obscure 
phraseology, it does not follow that he is a learned man and an 
original thinker. A puddle is not necessarily deep, because one is 
unable to see the bottom of it; neither is a lake necessarily shal¬ 
low, because the eye can catch at a single glance every object that 
exists beneath its pellucid waters. In printed books, we often see 
ignorant blockheads cover up their lack of knowledge by a string 
of misapplied long words, as uncalled for as they are distasteful 
and unintelligible ; while the really learned man, instead of going 
out of his way to lug in technicalities head-and-shoulders, uses 
them only when they are absolutely necessary to give precision and 
accuracy to his statements. As a general rule, when an author 
thinks clearly, he writes clearly; and when an author’s ideas are 
confused, his expressions partake of the disorder of his mental 
faculties. 
In a Memoir intended for publication in the Proceedings of 
some grave Scientific Society, it would, of course, be highly inde¬ 
corous to break the dreary monotony of scientific hair-splitting by 
a single remark, which had the slightest tendency towards exciting 
that convulsive movement of the midriff, which the vulgar herd of 
mankind call “laughter.” But as this Report is intended chiefly 
for the use of common folks, who do not think it beneath their 
dignity to indulge occasionally in a hearty laugh, I hope that I 
shall be pardoned, if I inadvertently here and there should drop a 
word, which may cause the cheek of the reader to mantle with a 
smile. Four hundred years ago Martin Luther said, that “ he 
could see no reason why the Devil should run away with all the 
good tunes.” I can see no reason, in the year 1867, why the 
