ZOOLOGICAL REMARKS. 29 



which, according to Matthew Arnold, acquaints itself with 

 ' the best that is thought and known in the world,' and 

 the scientific culture which, according to Professor Huxley, 

 is simply ' common sense at its best ' receives the full 

 measure of the poetic interest which lies in common things. 

 The man of science only, who is satisfied with merely dis- 

 secting and classifying a flower, misses as much as the man 

 of sentiment only, to whom a flower may or may not sug- 

 gest thoughts through memory or association. 



" Perhaps one of the best examples we have of the 

 happy combination of literary with scientific culture where 

 literature has been studied for its own sake, and where 

 science has been studied for its own sake is to be found 

 in the philological works of Max Miiller. Max Miillerhas 

 studied words in much the same way as Agassiz studied 

 fish bones, or as Boyd Dawkins hunted English caves. He 

 has analysed them and traced them to their roots ' dead 

 from the waist down,' but by the power of literary culture, 

 the power of knowing ' the best that is thought and known 

 in the world,' he has been able to associate the barest 

 skeletons of words with man's history with his struggles, 

 his development, his achievements, his hopes, his fears, 

 and his religions." 



In concluding this Chapter, it only remains for me 

 to touch briefly upon the object and utility of Natural 

 History. 



Natural History is that science which treats of the 

 structure of bodies spread over the surface of the globe, or 

 forming its mass the phenomena exhibited by these 

 bodies, the characters by which they may be distinguished 

 from each other, and the part they play in the entire crea- 

 tion. Its range is immense, and its importance is not 



