24 
WORK IN EUROPE 
Vienna). On such occasions I took notes, as well as I could, and, 
as I but seldom carried specimens for comparison with me, I had 
most of the time to rely on my memory. As the last years of my 
entomological career were principally devoted to generalizations 
tending to improve the System, it is painful for me now to reflect 
how much I lost by such isolation and how much more completely 
my work would have succeeded, if I had been able to illustrate it 
by numerous examples founded upon the study of exotic forms in 
museums within easier reach! 
The views on science and scientific work in general to which I 
have adhered during my lifetime have been expressed, more than 
sixty years ago, by a much more eloquent voice than mine. On 
December 29, 1835, Karl Ernst von Baer, whom I feel honored to 
recall as a patron and a friend, pronounced an oration before the 
Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, the subject of which was: 
“Blicke auf die Entwickelung der Wissenschaft ” (“Views on the 
Development of Science”). I cannot do better than close this 
“ Introduction ” with a passage from that oration. 1 
“ If I presume to beg your attention a little longer, it is that we 
may consider a greater subject, the wonderful Pantheon of Science 
itself, to which we will now revert. The Builder of this edifice, 
who tests all the stones before putting them together, so that the 
building shall not totter, is Criticism, —but he is an ever-living 
Builder, whose power and insight grow with his work. As to the 
result, therefore, let us be unconcerned ! The individual workman 
must break each stone out of the quarry, and then so fashion it as 
to fit it for the place intended for it. To no one is it granted to 
complete any very large portion of this edifice single-handed. 
‘ Genius if by that is implied irresponsibility (‘ Ungebundenheit ’), 
has long since lost its credit in the domain of Science. It had 
better try its luck in the world of Poetry ! In the domain of 
Science, talent alone, coupled with diligence and the power of self- 
1 The original German text of the passage will be found in my paper : “ Zur 
Geschichte der Brustgrate, etc., nebst einer Krinnerung an Karl Ernst von Baer ” in the 
Berl Ent. Zeit., 1893, p. 373, No. 135 of my “ List.” The whole “ Oration” has been 
reprinted in Vol. I, p. 75-1G0, of the collection of miscellaneous publications of 
Baer, published under the general heading : “ lieden gehalten in wissenschaftltchen 
Versammlungen,” etc., in three volumes, St. Petersburg, 1864-1873. 
