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at ain, and, consequently, from preoccupation, or other reasons, consider it is 
beyond them. Science simply means knowledge; but it has now gained a 
significance in the eyes of many of something abstruse and not to be had by all. 
This impression I consider it the duty of all of us to endeavor to clear away. 
To the second class belong those who take up a special branch of natural 
history, and, paying little attention to others, push their investigations to the 
furthest possible limit, giving their whole time to it. They may have the inten- 
tion of taking up other branches when they have thoroughly studied the first, but 
here the impossibility of doing everything, and the shortness of man’s life, 
interfere, and they find that, unless their labors were undertaken with the 
express object of establishing ‘some fact, or throwing a light upon some con- 
nected study, that they have wasted their whole lives and furthered the general 
work of science very little. Now, the former class is composed of the generous 
students of nature, who use their time in popularizing and making pleasant the 
by-ways of science; the latter, of the unselfish, (if a distinction can be drawn 
between the two words generous and unselfish) who give their whole time to the 
dry and difficult task of solving knotty points, the clearing up of which may or 
may not, eventually, be of value. Now, one of these is not more important than 
the other, for they are both essentially necessary in order that the work of 
science may go on and prosper. Specialists are particularly useful, and, in fact» 
everyone must be a specialist to a certain extent, for the different branches of 
natural science are so intimately connected that, to understand one thoroughly, 
you must know a little of all. The proper system is to choose very deliberately 
which branch you intend to take up. Look into ‘all, and find which you have 
the greatest taste for, then set to work and work it up from its commencement 
beginning at its very elements, and work on slowly; you will soon find that 
you require, frequently, to know something of the other branches. Now comes 
the critical point. Do not drop it altogether; you do not want to make a study 
ofall. Let the first compose the backbone of your studies, and work the others: 
round it; but remember you only want the rudiments of the other branches, not 
to know all about them, but enough to help you to understand your own. ‘This 
is the great secret of progress; keep on steadily at your one branch, and, at the 
same time never allow anything which affects it to pass unexamined, even 
though in another branch, until you quite understand the connection. 
Take as instances: Where would the Entomologist be without a knowledge of 
Botany, to know where to look for insects which he knew to feed on a certain 
plant, or a slight knowledge of Mineralogy to know in what description of places 
to find the plant; or, again, the Conchologist : how would he know where to 
spend a day looking for specimens, could he not discriminate whether there were 
er were not lime in the soil, in some form, from which the shells could be formed ; 
or the Geologist, how could he identify his specimens if he knew nothing of 
