58 OPHIUR.E. 



related to each other. There are men who affect to look 

 down on the investigator of " mere species," who, with 

 patronizing' self-sufficiency, talk of the " humble observers 

 of minute differences of forms," and who scarcely rank 

 the recorder of new animals or plants above the mere col- 

 lector or virtuoso. Yet such persons affect perfectly to 

 understand the great laws of nature ; and will write on 

 what they are pleased to term the philosophy of natural 

 history, often without the knowledge of a single form 

 or structure save from a picture in a book. The hu- 

 mility which the knowledge of the abundance of undis- 

 covered things teaches the practical naturalist, prevents 

 him retorting on such would-be philosophers ; and know- 

 ing how little we yet know, he scarcely ventures to pro- 

 nounce any law general. He knows too well that the 

 conclusion he drew in the morning is often overturned 

 by the discovery he makes in the evening, to pronounce 

 himself the lawgiver of nature ; yet also knowing, from 

 the perfection of all he sees around him, that the ma- 

 chinery of nature is perfect, and hoping the laws of that 

 machinery discoverable, he points out the indications of 

 those laws wherever he perceives a glimpse of their in- 

 fluence, and works as trustfully towards the develope- 

 ment of the truth. 



The pretty Ophiocoma which I have named after my 

 friend and companion in research, Mr. Goodsir, forms a 

 beautiful link between the scaly and the plated Brittle- 

 stars. Before I saw this species, I had some doubts as to 

 the propriety of retaining those two variations of character 

 in the one genus, and suspected that Ophiocoma rosula 

 was the type of a separate group. In the species under 

 consideration, however, we find scaly rays and an imbri- 

 cated body, with so much of the habit of the Daisy Brittle- 



