Such questions sound very reasonable, and so they are. But the entomologist's answer is this. We ourselves may get on well without the help of the dead languages, but we have brother naturalists all over the world, speaking a great variety of different languages. We endeavour to help one another--to exchange notes and generally to assist one another in our labours; and this can be greatly facilitated if we all adopt the same system of nomenclature. The educated of most of the great nations generally know something of Latin and Greek, and consequently the adoption of these languages is generally acceptable to all. This sounds well, but for my own part I believe that if we are to make any branch of natural history a popular study, especially with the young, we must to a certain extent avoid anything that may prove distasteful. There is no doubt whatever that many a youngster has been turned away from the pursuit of the study of nature by the formidable array of almost unpronounceable names that stretch nearly halfway across a page; and those who desire to make such a study pleasant to beginners should be very cautious with the use of these necessary evils. One would think, on glancing over some of the scientific manuals that are written 'especially for the young,' that the authors considered our own too mean a language for so exalted a purpose, for in such works we find all or nearly all the popular names by which the schoolboy knows certain creatures he has seen entirely omitted, and the description of a species appended to a long Latin term that conveys no idea whatever to the reader, who is studying the description of a well-known animal or plant and doesn't know it. Our plan will be to give the popular names throughout, except in the case of those few species that are not so well known as to have received one; but the scientific names will always be given as well for the benefit of those readers who would like to know them. And the short description of the method of classification just given will enable the more ambitious of my readers to thoroughly understand the table of British butterflies and moths toward the end of the book. This table includes _all_ the British species of butterflies and of the larger moths; and the arrangement is such as to show clearly the divisions into sections, families, &c. It will therefore be of great value for reference, and as a guide for the arrangement of the specimens in the cabinet.