on plants! How many species that devour others! How many that live at the expense of larger animals, on which they feed continually! How many species are there, some of which pass the greater part of their time in water, while others pass it entirely there! The immensity of Nature's works is nowhere more apparent than in the prodigious multiplicity of these species of little animals." He then proceeds to remark, that, as it is impossible for one man to acquire a knowledge of all the insects of even a limited district, and as thousands of minute insects must for ever remain unknown to us, instead of burdening our memory with the characteristic distinctions of these creatures, and thus preventing ourselves from attending to matters of more importance, it would be sufficient for us to know the principal genera, and especially those that are of most frequent occurrence, and to make ourselves acquainted with their peculiarities, their food, their propagation, the different forms which they assume in the course of their life, and such like circumstances. He avows that he had no great regard for a precise enumeration of the species of each genus; holding it enough to distinguish the more remarkable.

"Although," he continues, "we would greatly restrict the limits of the study, there are persons who will think them still too wide; there are even some who consider all knowledge of this part of natural history as useless, and who unhesitatingly pronounce it a frivolous amusement. We are equally willing that these pursuits should be regarded as amusements, that is, as studies which, so far from being trouble

some, afford pleasure to the person who engages in them. They do more,-they necessarily raise the mind to admire the Author of so many wonders. Ought we to be ashamed of ranking among our occupations observations and researches, of which the object is an acquaintance with the works on which the Supreme Being has displayed a boundless wisdom, and varied to such a degree? Natural history is the history of his works; nor is there any demonstration of his existence more intelligible to all men than that which it furnishes."

The two first volumes treat of caterpillars, their forms and habits, their metamorphoses into butterflies, and the insects which attack them, or which live within their bodies. The third speaks of the small creatures named moths, which exist in the interior of the substances which they devour, or form of them coverings for their protection. It also contains the history of the aphides, a very numerous race of small insects, which suck the juices of trees and plants, live in society, and are often productive of great damage. These animalcules are especially remarkable for their mode of generation; it having been proved by M. Bonnet, that a single impregnation is sufficient for the production of many successive generations, and that they are viviparous in summer and oviparous in autumn. The flies which produce the excrescences named gall-nuts, and the worms from which come the dipterous insects, so diversified in their forms, manners, and places of abode, occupy the fourth volume. The fifth contains, among other genera, the bees, of which the history is so singular and interesting.

Certain varieties of these as well as wasps are described in the last volume. Similar researches were made by Bonnet and De Geer, of whom we shall have occasion to speak in another part of our series.

Reaumur was the first naturalist who formed an extensive collection of animals in France. The celebrated Brisson, who was the keeper of his museum, derived from it the principal materials for his works on quadrupeds and birds. These last afterwards constituted the basis of the Royal Museum at Paris.

When the first volumes of Buffon made their арpearance, the elegance of their style had a prejudicial effect on the popularity of Reaumur's writings; and as naturalists, like poets and artists, generally belong to the irritabile genus,-the sensitive class of mankind,—our author seems to have experienced considerable chagrin. In other respects, however, he lived a very quiet life; residing sometimes on his estate in Saintonge, and sometimes at his countryhouse of Bercy, in the neighbourhood of Paris. He had no public employment, except that of intendant of the order of St Louis, of which he performed the duties for the benefit of a relative whom circumstances prevented from discharging them, and to whom he resigned the emoluments. He died on the 18th October 1757, at the age of 74; his death being accelerated by a fall which he had received at the castle of Bermondière, whither he had gone to pass the vacations. He seems to have been in all respects an amiable man, of correct habits and great mildness of disposition. His life, therefore, presents none of those bickerings and other mani

festations of rivalry which have produced so much disquietude to some other naturalists; and, as his fortune was sufficient for his comfortable subsistence, he was freed from those cares which distract the attention, and enabled to pursue his favourite studies with advantage.*

* Biographie Universelle, art. Reaumur, tome xxxvii. p. 198.

LINNÆUS.

SECTION I.

Birth and Education of Linnæus.

Birth and Parentage of Linnæus-He is destined for the Clerical Profession His early Fondness for Plants-He is sent to School, where his Progress is so slow that his Father resolves to make him a Shoemaker-Is rescued from this Fate by Dr Rothmann, who receives him into his Family-He becomes decidedly attached to the Study of Nature, enters the University of Lund, and is patronised by Professor Stobæus-When on an Excursion is attacked by a dangerous Malady-Stobæus surprises him in his nocturnal Studies-He goes to Upsal-Is reduced to extreme Poverty, from which he is relieved by Professor Celsius, whom he assists-Is next patronised by Rudbeck, and delegated to read his Lectures-Forms a Friendship with Artedi.

CHARLES LINNEUS was born on the 23d May 1707, at Rashult, in the province of Smaland. His father, Nils, whose ancestors were peasants, was pastor of the village, and being the first learned man of his house, had, agreeably to a custom prevalent in Sweden, changed his family-name with his profession, and borrowed that of Linné from a large linden-tree, which stood in the vicinity of his native place, between Tomsboda and Linnhult. His mother, Christina Broderson, was the daughter of his father's predecessor in office.

The pious parents had intended him likewise for the service of the church, either because they considered the clerical profession the best adapted to

M