REVIEWS 
51 
History at home, and to extend for it the sphere of observation, from the 
more conspicuous but limited field which the Vertebrata afford, to the count¬ 
less species and more varied history, transformations, and instincts of the 
Annulata, and thence indirectly to all the lower forms of animal life. Nor 
has its popularity been limited to one tongue or country; but, either 
through the medium of translations, or by the obvious influence which it 
has exercised ever since over the most esteemed elementary books in other 
European languages, the impulse given has been propagated externally in 
a widening circle. In noticing this new edition, however, it is with home 
readers we have to do, and especially with the young, who enjoy a privilege 
that we of a former generation were debarred from, in being early admitted 
to fields of instruction and delight, which sometime were strictly fenced off 
from the narrow penfold of 11 general education.” If the influence of the work, 
in its previous comparatively costly form, has proved so eminently expansive, 
we cannot doubt that the effect will be vastly greater, now that it is brought 
within the class of ordinary school or gift-books, in bulk and in price. We 
copy the advertisement prefixed to this the latest , but, we confidently augur, 
not (by many) last edition ; as it can scarcely have a better recommenda¬ 
tion than that accurate and unpretending statement. 11 This work is now 
published at one sixth of the price of the sixth edition, so as to bring it 
within the reach of all desirous of becoming acquainted with the natural 
history of insects, and thus carrying out more effectually the object of the 
authors—that of introducing others to a branch of science which they had 
found so delightful. Though compressed, by a smaller type, into one 
volume, it contains every line of the sixth edition, which includes much 
matter not in the five preceding editions; and to render the work more 
complete, the account of its origin and progress, furnished by Mr. Spence 
to the life of Mr. Kirby, by Mr. Freeman, is with his permission given as 
an appendix.” 
The book is indeed a marvel of cheapness, considerably more than six 
hundred closely printed octavo pages for five shillings ; and if, as we under¬ 
stand to be the case, the sale of the former editions in Britain has exceeded 
three thousand copies, we may well expect that the two thousand of the 
seventh will quickly be sown broadcast over the country. To our readers, 
old and young, parents, children, teachers, respectively, we say “ buy and 
read,” enjoy, verify, and enlarge, by the use of your own eyes and faculties, 
the curious details in rural economy, animal biography, and mental philo¬ 
sophy, amassed with so much study and personal observation, and digested 
with equal taste and judgment, by the learned authors, indissolubly asso¬ 
ciated in fame and remembrance, as they were in life-long friendship 
