Ixxix 



knowledge and human happiness, it is to our members that we 



must look — 



Men the workers, ever reaping something new, 

 That which they have done but earnest of the things that they shall do. 



The Society will shortly celebrate its jubilee, and I would ask 

 you betimes to take into consideration how we can best mark the 

 event. It strikes me that the occasion should be signalized in 

 some way or other, and in a manner that will have some endui'ing 

 effect. Our reserve fund is small, and might with advantage be 

 increased. A substantial addition to the library, in the shape of 

 expensive books not easily accessible, would be acceptable. The 

 catalogue of our library ought to be printed. Incorporation by 

 royal charter is not beyond our hopes. But I almost think that 

 preferable to any of these would be a permanent addition to our 

 ranks of (say) another fifty or a hundred members. Is it too 

 much to expect that by a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull 

 altogether, we should within the next three years succeed in 

 obtaining a substantial reinforcement, and be able to publish a 

 Jubilee List of not less than 300 members ? 



From what I have already said, it must be abundantly i^lain 

 that I desire to appeal to a wider constituency, and to bring 

 within our fold all who can in any sense be called entomologists, 

 or induced to take an interest in entomology. Entomologists 

 are divisible into man}^ groups. Each has his place in nature, 

 and his own work to do ; and each requires the aid of the others. 

 There is room for all ; and when a votary of one branch sneers 

 at or disparages the cultivators of another branch, he is only 

 exhibiting his own lack of scientific and philosophic spirit, and 

 uttering under a thin disguise the Pharisaic " Thank God that I 

 am not as other men !" Even a mere collector is not to be 

 repelled, but cherished and encouraged to become something 

 higher. I remember to have heard years ago of some selfish 

 brute who was said to destroy duplicate specimens, that he might 

 boast of his uniques ; as if there were any great credit due to a 

 man for being the first to pick up a thing which any other man 

 at the same time and place could equally have done ! Even such 

 a one is not beyond redemption : after priding himself on 

 uniques, the next step is to long for fine series, and this is an 

 advance, for he is thus led on to notice variation in species and 

 genera, to seek the limits of such variation, to trace the connexion 



