Sphinx Vespiformis: An Essay

EDWARD NEWMAN.
All are but parts of one stupendous whole,
Whose body Nature is, and God the soul.
LONDON: FREDERICK WESTLEY & A. H. DAVIS, STATIONERS' HALL COURT. 1832.
LONDON:
PRINTED BY R. CLAY, BREAD STREET HILL, CHEAPSIDE.
TO HIS HIGHLY-ESTEEMED FRIEND, BRACY CLARK, ESQ. FELLOW OF THE LINNÆAN SOCIETY OF LONDON, MEMBER OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF FRANCE, &c. &c. THIS LITTLE ESSAY IS DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR.
To ascertain the place among insects, or even animated beings, which this Sphinx Vespiformis naturally occupies, I have attempted in the following pages.
The Systema Naturæ has for years been the object of my most diligent search; but the idea which I have here taken of the subject is scarcely a month old. An anxiety to hear the opinions of others has urged me to scribble these few pages, with, I fear, far more haste than good speed; for it has happened that other engagements have prevented my affording them any time but that usually devoted to repose: so that the rapid and careless manner in which the sketch has been drawn, must be my apology for the very imperfect state in which I now offer it to the public. I feel, however, a firm conviction that my theory is too near an approach to truth, to suffer from any garb, however slovenly, in which I may have dressed it.
I must for the same reason here observe, that I will in no way pledge myself to the infallibility of the precise points of contact hereafter proposed, nor shall I notice any attempts which may be made to invalidate the principle of my theory, by appealing to such trivial inaccuracies. Feeble efforts of this kind are naturally and very excusably called forth by a feeling of disappointment at the sudden destruction of favourite and long-cherished theories: skilfully managed, they often throw a momentary shade over truth, but never can extinguish it; he, therefore, who is confident in having truth on his side, would be acting ungenerously to quarrel with them.