[54] No individual need say with more heartfelt sincerity--"Preserve me from my friends," than Mr. MacLeay; let the naturalist read the _Horæ Entomologicæ_, and he will pause in admiration at the vigorous, manly display of intellect, which, frankly and eagerly seeking truth, throws a golden lustre over every page; and, I confess, my eyes were opened to the suspicion that all was not pure gold, by the awkward and abortive attempts of commentators to prove it so. Puerile schemes of applying the quinary system in detail, and sundry vapourings about affinity and analogy, have so mystified these subjects, that they already totter to their very foundations, and must speedily fall; while the existence of circles must stand for ever as a discovery of which Britain is proud. In one instance, the relation of imago is, from several combining causes, which it will be unavailing to recapitulate, uncertain enough--that of Barbicornis and Lasiocampa; but I would ask the impartial reader, is it half so far-fetched and untenable as those in common use? Can human sagacity, in sheer wantonness, invent combinations more unnatural than ----, twenty or thirty of which we could all point to in our own cabinets? For the value of the other relations (eleven others) I appeal to the judgment of the assiduous collector, the experienced observer, the real nature-loving naturalist,--to him who has spent days in the woods, and not only captured but observed these delightful beings,--to him who never invented or supported a theory,--to him who is pledged to no system, to no party,--I ask him, nothing doubting of his concurrence, whether these relations do not too plainly bear the impression of nature's seal, to allow him to doubt one instant of their reality.