Excerpt from An Illustrated Natural History of British Butterflies and Moths My work is completed. I am bound to commend it to the "benevolent reader" in the good old-fashioned, time-honoured style. Fettered by usage, equally old-fashioned, equally time-honoured, I am induced to place this commendation in front, although I entirely agree with the sentiment that has induced some writers truthfully to place their preface as written, at the end, when all the rest was complete. This act of authorship is generally regarded as facetious - a very mild Joke certainly, but a joke nevertheless. I cannot understand this: I cannot perceive why an author should be ashamed or afraid to make the public confession that his valedictory address was given forth after his long companionship with the reader had ceased. I cannot conceive why such an obvious truism should be thought droll. Be this as it may, one thing is certain: an author is held to be something less than courteous who does not commend his labours to the public in some way or other, even though he may have nothing to say by way of commendation: so I bow to custom and commence my task. Would that I could adopt the stereo-form of prefaces, and plead the pressing solicitations of a large circle of admiring friends as the lever that enforced publication; but I feel that such a plea would be untruthful. I have been submitted to no such pressure: I have been lifted out of my normal obscurity by no such lever. Friends such as these have held aloof in the coolest and most unconcerned manner. I am left without excuse. First, then, I would invite attention to the fact, again noticed farther on, that I had a very, very early predilection for Butterflies - I may say even from my nurses arms - and this taste having continued to old age, and having been indulged whenever opportunity offered, I have seen more of the little world of English Butterflies than most of my compatriots. 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.