THE SOCIETY S HERITAGE FROM THE MACLEAYS. 



601 



teiision of British commerce or even the extension of national education. Tliis 

 question is no less than 'What am I?' 'What is manf, a created being under the 

 direct government of his Creator, or only an accidental sprout of some primordial 

 type that was the common progenitor of both animals and vegetables. The 

 theologian has no doubt answered those (juestions, but leaving the Mosaic account 

 of the Creation to Doctors of Divinity, the naturalist tinds himself on the horns of 

 a dilemma. For, either from the facts he observes, he must believe in a special 

 creation of organised species, which creation has been progressive and is now in 

 full operation, or he must adopt some such view^ as that of Darwin, viz., that the 

 primordial cell of life has been constantly sprouting forth of itself by 'natural 



selection" into all the various forms of animals and vegetables 1 



am myself so far a Pantheist that I see God in everything: but then 1 believe in 

 His special Providence, and that he is the constant and active sole Creator and 

 all-wise Administrator of the Universe" [Life and letters of the Right Hon. 

 Robert Lowe, Viscount Sherbrooke, Vol. ii., p. 204 (1893)]. 



It is to be remembered, of course, that the letter was a private one, not in- 

 tended for publication. 



From the foregoing, it is evident that the words which Sachs applies to the 

 contemporary botanists, are also applicable to the zoologists: — "It is easy to 

 understand why the first feeble attempts at a theory of descent encountered such 

 obstinate, nay fanatical opposition from professed systematists, who looked upon 

 the system as something above nature, a component part of their religion" [History 

 of Botany, p. Ill] . 



It is not necessary to enter into details respecting W. S. Macleay's published 

 papers. Work done from upwards of seventy years to more than a century ago, 

 whether relating to the significance of the natural system, to the morphology of 

 insects, or to descriptive zoology, is now chiefly of historic interest, because, smce 

 then, all branches of knowledge have progressed. Twenty-six papers — not includ- 

 ing the Horae Entomologicae, Aunulosa .Javanica, Annulosa of New Holland, col- 

 lected by Captain P. P. King, and the Annulosa of South Africa, which were not 

 published by Societies — are listed in the Royal Society's Catalogue of Scientific 

 Papers, Vol. iv. The entire series can be consulted in the Society's library. 



W. S. Macleay left England for Cuba in October, 1825, to take up his 

 duties in connection with the Mixed British and Spanish Court of Commission for 

 the Abolition of the Slave Trade established at the Havana. His residence m 

 Cuba lasted from December, 1825 to early in the year 1836. 



At a Meeting of the Zoological Club on February 14th, 1826, "Mr. Vigors 

 read some extracts from a letter which he had received from W . S . Macleay, 

 Esqr., F.L.S., from the Havannah, December 27th, 1825. The extracts con- 

 sisted of Ornithological observations made by tliat gentleman, during his voyage 

 from England to the Island of Cuba, in the months of October, November, and 

 December, 1825 ; including remarks on the Ornithology of the Islands of Madeira, 

 Teneriffe and St. Jago; as also a few cursory observations made at Barbadoes, 

 Martinique, and off fhe coast of St. Domingo, on the same subject" [Zoological 

 Journal, Vol. ii., p. 553, 1826]. 



With the exception of one interesting letter to his friend Kirby. dated Janu- 

 ary 3rd, 1827, about a year after his arrival, few particulars of this period of his 

 life are available, except what can be gleaned from casual remarks in some of his 

 papers. To Kirby, he wrote: "I fear that you will imagine that, by crossing the 



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