50) 
and so inany others, instead of devoting so much time to the 
study of ancient naturalists, had studied nature itself, the 
patient labour of these sound intellects would have been better 
rewarded by an increase of knowledge. The observation of 
nature seemed for them to have no other aim, than to confirm 
what had been found in the ancients. It was as if the modern 
generation was considered incapable of thinking for itself, or 
of seeing anything but what had been seen before. One should 
think that, on the contrary, if there are any sciences in which 
we can, and ought, to surpass the ancients, it is in the sciences 
of observation. 
By and by, however, nature opened the eyes of those stu- 
dents who, until then, had sought in her but what they had 
read in Aristotle and Pliny; they became aware of the existence 
of some facts which were worthy of notice, although they were 
not found in those old books supposed to contain everything; 
they perceived other facts which provoked in them a_ well- 
founded mistrust in that which they had received from tradition. 
Thus the implicit trust in the ancients became gradually, and 
sometimes unnecessarily, weakened, and people began to rea- 
lize that it was indispensable to study nature itself, to verify 
what had been taught before, and to attempt to acquire new 
knowledge. This was the course adopted by Malpighi, Swammer- 
dam, Redi, and other illustrious men, either contemporaries, or 
of more recent date. Even those who, in consequence of a per- 
haps fortunate ignorance, were.incapable of reading the ancients, 
like Goedart and Miss Merian, have contributed their share to 
the good work. 
The first, and one of the most important steps which had 
to be taken in the history of insects, consisted in dispelling 
the false notion which the ancients had entertained about the 
origin of most of them, when they believed that insects could 
be bred from putrescent bodies of different kind. This step, 
which seems so easy, proved nevertheless to be very difficult, 
and showed how anything to our minds, may become an ob- 
stacle, Preposterous as it seems to attempt to breed honey-bees 
