[PREFACE.]
One principal cause of the little attention paid to Entomology in this country, has doubtless been the ridicule so often thrown upon the science. The botanist, sheltered now by the sanction of fashion, as formerly by the prescriptive union of his study with medicine, may dedicate his hours to mosses and lichens without reproach; but in the minds of most men, the learned as well as the vulgar, the idea of the trifling nature of his pursuit is so strongly associated with that of the diminutive size of its objects, that an entomologist is synonymous with every thing futile and childish. Now, when so many other roads to fame and distinction are open, when a man has merely to avow himself a botanist, a mineralogist, or a chemist—a student of classical literature or of political economy—to ensure attention and respect, there are evidently no great attractions to lead him to a science which in nine companies out of ten with which he may associate promises to signalize him only as an object of pity or contempt. Even if he have no other aim than self-gratification, yet "the sternest stoic of us all wishes at least for some one to enter into his views and feelings, and confirm him in the opinion which he entertains of himself:" but how can he look for sympathy in a pursuit unknown to the world, except as indicative of littleness of mind[1]?
Yet such are the genuine charms of this branch of the study of nature, that here as well as on the continent, where, from being equally slighted, Entomology now divides the empire with her sister Botany, this obstacle would not have been sufficient to deter numbers from the study, had not another more powerful impediment existed—the want of a popular and comprehensive Introduction to the science. While elementary books on Botany have been multiplied amongst us without end and in every shape, Curtis's translation of the Fundamenta Entomologiæ, published in 1772; Yeats's Institutions of Entomology, which appeared the year after; and Barbut's Genera Insectorum, which came out in 1781—the two former in too unattractive, and the latter in too expensive a form for general readers—are the only works professedly devoted to this object, which the English language can boast.
Convinced that this was the chief obstacle to the spread of Entomology in Britain, the authors of the present work resolved to do what was in their power to remove it, and to introduce their countrymen to a mine of pleasure, new, boundless, and inexhaustible, and which, to judge from their own experience—formed in no contracted field of comparison—they can recommend as possessing advantages and attractions equal to those held forth by most other branches of human learning.
The next question was, in what way they should attempt to accomplish this intention. If they had contented themselves with the first suggestion that presented itself, and merely given a translation of one of the many Introductions to Entomology extant in Latin, German and French, adding only a few obvious improvements, their task would have been very easy; but the slightest examination showed that, in thus proceeding, they would have stopped far short of the goal which they were desirous of reaching.—In the technical department of the science they found much confusion, and numerous errors and imperfections—the same name sometimes applied to parts anatomically quite different, and different names to parts essentially the same, while others of primary importance were without any name at all. And with reference to the anatomy and physiology of insects, they could no where meet with a full and accurate generalization of the various facts connected with these subjects, scattered here and there in the pages of the authors who have studied them.
They therefore resolved to begin, in some measure, de novo—to institute a rigorous revision of the terms employed, making such additions and improvements as might seem to be called for; and to attempt a more complete and connected account of the existing discoveries respecting the anatomical and physiological departments of the science than has yet been given to the world:—and to these two points their plan at the outset was limited.
It soon, however, occurred to them, that it would be of little use to write a book which no one would peruse; and that in the present age of love for light reading, there could not be much hope of leading students to the dry abstractions of the science, unless they were conducted through the attractive portal of the economy and natural history of its objects. To this department, therefore, they resolved to devote the first and most considerable portion of their intended work, bringing into one point of view, under distinct heads, the most interesting discoveries of Reaumur, De Geer, Bonnet, Lyonet, the Hubers, &c., as well as their own individual observations, relative to the noxious and beneficial properties of insects; their affection for their young; their food, and modes of obtaining it; their habitations; societies; &c. &c.: and they were the more induced to adopt this plan, from the consideration, that, though many of the most striking of these facts have before been presented to the English reader, a great proportion are unknown to him; and that no similar generalization (if a slight attempt towards it in Smellie's Philosophy of Natural History, and a confessedly imperfect one in Latreille's Histoire Naturelle des Crustacés et des Insectes be excepted) has ever been attempted in any language.—Thus the entire work would be strictly on the plan of the Philosophia Entomologica of Fabricius, only giving a much greater extent to the Œconomia and Usus, and adverting to these in the first place instead of in the last.
The epistolary form was adopted, not certainly from any idea of their style being particularly suited to a mode of writing so difficult to keep from running into incongruities: but simply because this form admitted of digressions and allusions called for in a popular work, but which might have seemed misplaced in a stricter kind of composition;—because it is better suited to convey those practical directions, which in some branches of the pursuit the student requires;—and lastly, because by this form, the objection against speaking of the manners and economy of insects before entering upon the definition of them, and explaining the terms of the science—a retrograde course, which they have chosen from their desire to present the most alluring side of the science first—is in great measure, if not wholly, obviated.
Such is the plan which the authors chalked out for themselves—a plan which in the execution they have found so much more extensive than they calculated upon, that, could they have foreseen the piles of volumes through which it has entailed upon them the labour of wading, often to glean scarcely more than a single fact—the numerous anatomical and technological investigations which it has called for—and the long correspondence, almost as bulky as the entire work, unavoidably rendered necessary by the distant residence of the parties—they would have shrunk from an undertaking, of which the profit, if by great chance there should be any, could not be expected to repay even the cost of books required in it, and from which any fame must necessarily be confined to a very limited circle. But having entered upon it, they have persevered; and if they succeed in their grand aim, that of making converts amongst their countrymen to a study equally calculated for promoting the glory of God and the delight and profit of man, they will not deem the labour of the leisure hours of six years ill bestowed.
And here it may be proper to observe, that one of their first and favourite objects has been to direct the attention of their readers "from nature up to nature's God." For, when they reflected upon the fatal use which has too often been made of Natural History, and that from the very works and wonders of God, some philosophists, by an unaccountable perversion of intellect, have attempted to derive arguments either against his being and providence, or against the Religion revealed in the Holy Scriptures, they conceived they might render some service to the most important interests of mankind, by showing how every department of the science they recommend illustrates the great truths of Religion, and proves that the doctrines of the Word of God, instead of being contradicted, are triumphantly confirmed by his Works.