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invaluable for its accuracy and completeness, they would be provided in their old age with an object capable not merely of keeping off that tædium vitæ so often inseparable from the relinquishment of active life, but of supplying an unfailing fund of innocent amusement, an incentive to exercise, and, consequently, no mean degree of health and enjoyment.

Some, who, with an ingenious author*, regard as superfluous all pains to show the utility of Natural History in reference to the common purposes of life, asking, "if it be not enough to open a source of copious and cheap amusement, which tends to harmonise the mind, and elevate it to worthy conceptions of nature and its Author? if a greater blessing to a man can be offered than happiness at an easy rate, unalloyed by any debasing mixture?" may think the earnestness displayed on this head, and the length which has been gone in refuting objections, needless. But Entomology is so peculiarly circumstanced, that, without removing these obstacles, there could be no hope of winning votaries to the pursuit. Pliny felt the necessity of following this course in the outset of his book which treats on insects; and a similar one has been originally called for in introducing the study even to those countries where the science is now most honoured. In France, Reaumur, in each of the successive volumes of his immortal work, found it essential to seize every opportunity of showing that the study of insects is not a frivolous amusement, nor devoid of utility, as his countrymen conceived it; and in Germany, Sulzer had to traverse the same road, telling us, in proof of the necessity of this procedure, that on showing his works on insects with their plates to two very sensible men, one commended him for employing his leisure hours in preparing prints that would amuse children and keep them out of mischief, and the other admitted that they might furnish very pretty patterns for ladies' aprons! And though in this country things are not now quite so bad as they were when Lady Glanville's will was attempted to be set aside on the ground of lunacy, evinced by no other act than her fondness for collecting insects; and Ray had to appear at Exeter on the trial as a witness of her sanity †; yet nothing less than line upon line can be expected to eradicate the deep-rooted preju

* Dr. Aikin.

† See Harris's Aurelian under Papilio Cinxia.

dices which prevail on this subject. "Old impressions," as Reaumur has well observed, "are with difficulty effaced. They are weakened, they appear unjust even to those who feel them, at the moment they are attacked by arguments which are unanswerable; but the next instant the proofs are forgotten, and the perverse association resumes its empire."

The Authors do not know that any curiosity will be excited to ascertain what share has been contributed to the work by each of them; but if there should, it is a curiosity they must be excused from gratifying. United in the bonds of a friendship, which, though they have to thank Entomology for giving birth to it, is founded upon a more solid basis than mere community of scientific pursuits, they wish that, whether blame, or praise is the fate of their labours, it may be jointly awarded. All that they think necessary to state is, that the composition of each of the different departments of the work has been, as nearly as possible, divided between them; that though the letter, or series of letters, on any particular subject, has been usually undertaken by one, some of the facts and illustrations have generally been supplied by the other, and there are a few to which they have jointly contributed; and that throughout, the facts for which no other authority is quoted, are to be considered as resting upon that of one or other of the authors, but not always of him, who, from local allusions, may be conceived the writer of the letter in which they are introduced, as the matter furnished by each to the letters of the other must necessarily be given in the person of the supposed writer.

In acknowledging their obligations to their friends, the first place is due to SIMON WILKIN, Esq. of Costessey near Norwich, to whose liberality they are indebted for the plates which illustrate and adorn the work, which have been drawn and engraved at his expense by Mr. JOHN CURTIS, whose intimate acquaintance with the subject has enabled him to give to the figures an accuracy which they could not have received from one less conversant with the science.*

* This refers to the year 1815, when the first volume of this work was published. In the twenty-seven years since elapsed, Mr. Curtis's Entomological labours, and especially his British Entomology in sixteen volumes, equally admirable for its scientific and artistical excellence, have deservedly gained him a very high reputation wherever the science is cultivated. (1842.)

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To ALEXANDER MACLEAY, Esq. they are under particular obligations for the warm interest he has all along taken in the work, the judicious advice he has on many occasions given, the free access in which he has indulged the authors to his unrivalled cabinet and well-stored library, and the numerous other attentions and accommodations by which he has materially assisted them in its progress.

To the other friends who have kindly aided them in this undertaking in any way, they beg here to offer their best thanks.

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