16 
with that “nation of shopkeepers,” as we were once contemptuously 
called, nor does the study of entomology aid much the physical advance¬ 
ment of the ever-suffering human race. To the initiated, however, it 
offers an intelligent relaxation from business cares ; it offers a means of 
intellectual training; a path by means of which many grains of truth 
may yet be added to the sum total of human knowledge. 
Insects, however, are of the utmost importance, and fulfil a large 
and varied series of functions in Nature’s workshop. They outnumber 
by far all other land animals on the globe, and the number of their 
species, when compared with those of any other part of the animal 
creation, is beyond comprehension. It is no wonder, therefore, 
that entomology, that is the various branches of knowledge con¬ 
nected with insects, although only a section of the great science of 
zoology, or the still greater one of biology, is sufficient, owing to its 
vast extent, to occupy entirely the attention of those who devote 
themselves to it, without trenching on the other branches of zoology ; 
nor do those who study the other branches of zoology attempt, as a 
rule, to make a study of entomology. 
The predominance of insect life on the earth opens up another and 
wider question, for it is clear, from the fact of this predominance, that 
the Class Insecta has been exceedingly successful in what is termed 
the “ struggle for existence.” But this is not difficult to explain, 
for the vast fecundity of insects, often almost incredible, the rapidity 
with which they come to maturity, and their ability, by means of their 
quiescent periods of metamorphosis, to undergo a certain amount of 
development independently and apart from their growth, are all 
features which at once present themselves as.important factors in the 
success which insects have achieved in the “ struggle for existence.” 
Apart from the purely scientific aspects of entomology, as viewed 
from the standpoint of the morphologist and physiologist respectively, 
the study of entomology has now assumed a philosophical interest unsur¬ 
passed by the study of any other group of the animal or vegetable 
worlds. What can be more interesting to the educated mind than the 
unravelling of the reasons underlying the varied appearances of insects 
as exhibited by their forms, colours and structures ? What more 
interesting than the course of observation and exact study necessary to 
fathom the. complicated route by means of which any highly 
specialised insect has reached its particular plane of specialisation ? If 
anything can be more absorbingly interesting than these, it is, perhaps, 
the study of the habits of insects, more especially those of the so-called 
“ Social Insects; ” but in all these branches of entomological study 
the true philosophical spirit comes into action, and the philosophical 
mind is brought into play. Many of the wisest of our sages have 
given their attention to these problems, and yet the field covered by 
them is largely unknown but fertile ground, awaiting new explorers, 
hiding secrets which have yet to be discovered. 
The so-called entomologist who looks over his collection and 
counts its value in shekels, the man who locks up his treasures and 
gloats over them in secret as the miser is supposed to do over his gold, 
and the man who collects, neither to learn nor to instruct, but simply to 
possess, are happily dying out, and, in spite of a wail from the 
