Excerpt from The Book of Butterflies, Sphinxes and Moths: Illustrated by One Hundred and Forty-Four Engravings, Coloured After Nature; In Three Volumes More than five years have elapsed since the commencement of Constable's Miscellany, and its universal popularity, the continued support of all the leading periodicals, and the numerous imitations of it that have subsequently appeared, are the best proofs that can be given of the excellence of its plan, and of its perfect adaptation to the wants and wishes of the age. The increased and increasing diffusion of wealth and knowledge has formed, in these kingdoms, a new and very numerous class of readers, persons to whom the economy both of time and money is an object of importance, but who are, at the same time, anxious not to be left behind in the march of intelligence, and who are desirous to acquire information suited to the present advanced state of society. For such persons this series of publications was primarily designed; the convenient size of the volumes permitted them to be studied without any interruption to the necessary avocations of life and business; their cheapness placed them within the reach of every reader, and the neatness of their form, and elegance of their typography, rendered them ornamental as well as useful in the library. Even a cursory survey of the catalogue will suffice to show that the subjects selected for the Miscellany are precisely those respecting which information is most desirable, such as combine interest with utility, and valuable instruction with rational entertainment. The names of the writers, containing among them some of the first in the annals of modern literature, must be a sufficient guarantee for the style and execution of the several volumes; and the few specimens selected from the vast mass of favourable criticism will suffice to show, that from its commencement up to the present hour, the design, the successive parts, and the whole of Constable's Miscellany, as far as completed, have received the warmest approbation from the legitimate guardians of literature. Though the work has now passed into other hands, no change will be made in the original plan; the new proprietors are sincerely anxious to preserve its established character, and to make the concluding volumes like those that have already appeared, worthy of public favour, by preserving the great characteristics of the work, - cheapness, interest, and utility. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.