. 
. 
Proceedings 75 
Science may also be terribly hindered by being worshipped 
too much. Some of the worship will inevitably be reflected on 
her high-priests; and it is extremely bad for them. If it be nec- 
essary to personify Science, let her be represented as a supremely 
practical wench, with not much decoration about her and no 
nonsense. 
And the study of Science must not be confined to a special 
class of persons; when that is done, a kind of scientific sacerdo- 
talism results, whence comes forgetfulness of the great aims of 
knowledge. 
But supposing that the science of Natural History steers safe- 
ly through all these perils, I see no reason to doubt that within 
another half a century it will hold a position of unique impor- 
tance amongst human studies. It will be the fountain of all prac- 
tical philosophy; it will condemn or justify the present attitude 
of the Man in the Street towards all kinds of poetry and mys- 
ticism; it will afford sound principles for the politician, the 
critic, and the economist. I suspect that we shall then discard 
the motives of glorified selfishness, put various unreasonable 
kinds of Pride in a museum—of antiquities—and work for the 
good of the race, which we shall then be beginning to under- 
stand. Fifty years is too soon for anything but the beginning of 
this; but a scientific age, if it ever does arrive,an age influenced 
by Natural History, the most human of all the sciences, will 
not be crudely mechanical and non-moral, as some writers have 
been pleased to foreshadow. It is a great insult to religion to 
call the ages of superstition the ages of Faith; it is an equally 
great insult to science to call this present age a scientific age. 
I do not think I have overstated the importance of the Evo- 
lution theory. And this theory has to be tested, checked, and 
developed, by the systematic study of Natural History. In order 
that this may be done as completely and perfectly as possible, 
some branch of Natural History must be selected for special 
attention; the animals constituting the class to be thus studied 
must be neither too large nor too small to be thoroughly exam- 
ined; they must reach their maturity in a reasonably short time; 
and there must be available a complete record in the rocks, 
showing the forms assumed by some characteristic organ of the 
