114 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Entomology, that economic form of it which is so conspicuous in 

 America, and is yearly attaining larger proportions with us. My 

 view of the case, however, is that this is no part of the scientific 

 extension of Entomology. The study of chemical manures and 

 soil constituents is no part of Chemistry; it belongs to the 

 modern method of Agriculture. And what we call economic 

 Entomology is also really a department of Agriculture, and would 

 not be worth the trouble of studying except for the sake of agri- 

 culture. This I do not say in any sense of depreciation of the 

 labours of the many workers in that field — workers who have 

 done, and are doing, most excellent and valuable work. The 

 application and diffusion of special knowledge gained by special 

 research is one thing, and a very necessary one ; but the attain- 

 ment of ultimate truth is quite another, and this only can 

 worthily be called Science. 



You observe how I harp on that word Science, for my 

 endeavour to-night has been to indicate in some slight way the 

 scientific side of our favourite study ; how we take part in the 

 general progress of knowledge, and have our share in the great 

 physical controversies of the failing century. I have sometimes 

 heard it asserted that Nature has lost half her charm since we 

 have taken to subjecting her to the methods of exact investigation, 

 materialised and dead are the epithets descriptive of her con- 

 dition, the glamour faded, the enchantment broken. My mind 

 on the subject is different ; I think, even in the study of insects, 

 we find an added fascination and a deeper meaning as we look at 

 them in the light of modern research ; we have that sense of some- 

 thing far more deeply interfused, that idea of the mystery which 

 underlies all phenomena, the reality behind the mere transient 

 and apparent when we transcend the method and begin to enquire 

 about the cause, — a mystery and a reality which to the simpler 

 vision of our predecessors was undiscernible. 



For we ourselves are heirs of all the ages, and our sciences after 

 a certain point become mutually interdependent and correlatives of 

 one another. To know one part of Nature thoroughly the student 

 must be conversant to some extent with all her manifestations. He 

 who would be a specialist in Entomology must seek the help, if not 

 share the labours, of the botanist, the geologist, the palaeontolo- 

 gist, even of the physicist and the chemist. Who is sufficient 

 for these things ? you may well ask ; and consequently, although 

 many may be called to be entomologists, few are chosen to inter- 

 pret the secrets of insect Biology. For there are now, as ever, 

 entomologists of all kinds, and, even ignoring the schoolboy and 

 "young collector" stage, many call themselves entomologists 

 whose only claim to the title is a zeal for acquisition which they 

 share with the bibliomaniac and the philatelist. A collector of 

 insects need not necessarily be an entomologist, although the 

 terms seem too commonly held as synonymous. To pursue this 



