( xlvii ) 



safe from any attacks that may be made upon tliem ; the days 

 of ridicule are long past, and the opponents that remain admire 

 while they doubt or dissent. But, for the sake of argument, 

 supposing the principles to be vulnerable, the damage will be 

 done not by opponents, but by too-enthusiastic admirers, who 

 seek to make every acquisition subsidiary without having had 

 Darwin's training. And I make bold to say that not the least 

 important item in Darwin's early training was that of a sys- 

 tematist ; for, if done well, systematic work in Natural History 

 requires an amount of diligence, of research, and, above all, of 

 care, that, while it leaves room for the scientific use of the 

 imagination, prevents everything being made subsidiary to the 

 imagination. Just as Darwin, in the early part of his career, 

 was a specialist and a systematist, so also have been most of our 

 most celebrated philosophical naturalists, and so some of them 

 continue. To my mind there is no subject so adapted to prove 

 the capabilities of an aspirant in any department of Natural 

 History as a monographic treatise on some special group, and 

 to me there is nothing easier than to detect in works of this 

 nature, on a subject with which I am acquainted, the amount of 

 care taken by the writer — how much is original and how much 

 second-hand, how much is solid and how much scamped : and, 

 if my observations be correct, the lasting reputation of most 

 naturalists will be gauged in direct proportion to the extent 

 to which their systematic work stands the test of time. In 

 systematic work not only do the animals themselves need careful 

 and exhaustive examination, but, what is as much to the point, 

 the whole literature relating to the subject must be carefully 

 studied, and this alone must result in an amount of training for 

 subsequent, and perhaps broader, studies that cannot fail to be 

 beneficial. Therefore, I recommend to those younger Fellows of 

 this Society with aspirations for future fame, to take up some 

 special group, and work it out thoroughly, and publish the 

 results. It may be said that the literature of every group has 

 now become so appalling in extent as to be deterrent in com- 

 parison with that of years gone by. I do not share that opinion. 

 In times gone by it was difficult to be able to consult the litera- 

 ture known to exist ; at present there is scarcely any work that 

 is not to be found in one or many of our great Natural History 

 libraries ; and, though the amount of current literature may be. 



