THE NATURALIST S OCCUPATION. 29 



for the purposes of easy and certain identification. 

 Although much of this work can have only a provisional 

 value, it is, nevertheless, quite indispensable ; for there 

 is not a single department of biology that does not 

 continually profit by its acquisitions, nor indeed is 

 there one that can make any great progress without 

 its aid. 



The process of coining names and labelling new 

 species must continue for a long time to come ; but, 

 it does not of course follow, because systematic names 

 are indispensable, that we can profitably spend our 

 time in committing them to memory. That is the 

 delusion of inexperience and the conceit of charlatan- 

 ism. Time was when the knowledge of a thousand 

 names secured one the title of botanist or zoolosfist, 

 and when the capacity for ten times that number was 

 esteemed the measure of a great naturalist ; but if we 

 may believe a celebrated German botanist, Schleiden, 

 such qualifications fell below par more than half a 

 century ago. 



In the beginner, and in the general observer, we 

 frequently meet with a superstitious regard for names 

 that blinds them to the real character and aims of natu- 

 ral history. With them, an ideal naturalist is supposed 

 to have an encyclopedic knowledge of names, and to be 

 ready for any worm, beetle, or butterfly, that may be 

 laid before him. If he has the courage to say he does 

 not know the name of the form presented, the inquirer 

 is amazed at the confession of ignorance ; if a vernacu- 

 lar name is offered, the information is received with 

 evident disappointment ; but if some unintelligible, poly- 

 syllabic, cacophonous Greek or Latin compound is glibly 



