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sons. This must happen, because there are two very different classes 

 of scientific laborers, who may be denominated generalists and special- 

 ists ; and the latter often fail to comprehend the former. The specialists 

 are apt to think there is no pleasure and no profit in Science with- 

 out knowing things in their individual minutire. They devote them- 

 selves to some one particular branch of science — their speciality — and 

 this they investigate very thoroughly during the whole of their lives. 

 The generalists think that all these special investigations are indispen- 

 sable, and yet that their own range of studies cannot be too wide or too 

 general. They are deeply impressed with the idea that everything is 

 in some way related to all other things. Nothing exists in an isolated 

 condition, and nothing can be understood if viewed in itself alone. 

 They think these general relations between all objects, are their most 

 interesting and important traits. They love to regard all creation as 

 a unit — a single piece of mechanism in which every individual object 

 fills its own place, and moves in harmony with the general movement, 

 the general plan of creation. This movement and this plan they en- 

 deavor to comprehend, and this they regard as of more importance 

 than any speciality. Humboldt in his Cosmos may be regarded as an 

 example of a generalist ) but even his Cosmos must be looked upon as 

 an imperfect and unfinished attempt. Among the ancient Greek gen- 

 eralists was Aristotle, and among the Romans the elder Pliny. In 

 modern times Linneus is a noble example. Copernicus and Newton 

 were noted for their general ■^iews and labors. Dr. Wilson's mind was 

 powerfully disposed to generalization ; a mental faculty which meta- 

 physicians of the best schools, rank as the very highest of all. From 

 this enlargement of his views it resulted that he was a pioneer of his 

 race, marching far in advance of his generation. He was the first man 

 of wealth in America who understood the importance of having a large 

 scientific library coupled with a large collection of objects of Natural 

 History, like those of the Academy of Natural Sciences. He was the 

 first man of wealth in America who understood the importance of found- 

 ing an Entomological Society with appropriate means of study. These 

 great institutions were not shaped for show or mere popular gratifica- 

 tion, however important this may be, but as seats where learned men 

 might study and make new discoveries, and where young men might 

 be attracted to enter on scientific lives. These means for the advance- 

 ment of knowledge, were not for one special branch ; his disposition 

 was too general for that. If Geology was his fovorite study, it was 

 because it includes so much. Here he beheld the formation of our 



