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European races, and the changes occurring on the face of 

 the earth, there is probably no way in which we can so help 

 the biology of the future as by the formation of collections. 



Mr. Bates, in an address he delivered to this Society a few 

 years ago, urged that the reason why entomologists frequently 

 accompanied their papers by no interesting generalisations was 

 that they perceived that the data are as yet too imperfect. 

 And there can be little doubt that the instinctive tendency (if I 

 may be allowed the use of such a term) of entomologists to 

 occupy themselves largely with the formation of collections 

 is on the whole and at present a wise one. 



I say this with no view of discouraging other branches of 

 entomological activity; indeed, if I did this, I should very 

 much regret having delivered this Address. I have already 

 alluded to the extreme importance of popularising and 

 diffusing all the branches of Science; and there can be no 

 doubt that observations of habits, of affinities, of anatomy, 

 are, independent of their intrinsic value, important aids in 

 encouraging collections by enlisting interest in the objects ; 

 while systematic and descriptive works are absolutely essential 

 as a key to the intricacies of nomenclature and arrangement 

 that are rendered inevitable by the vastness of the horde of 

 the species of insects. We may, too, view with toleration, if 

 not with approbation, a certain amount of speculative or 

 imaginative Entomology, though I think we ought none of 

 us to allow ourselves to indulge in it too freely, and we must 

 not forget that it can scarcely be considered to be Science. 

 In point of fact we are not yet in a position to give a positive 

 decision on any of the great problems of biology ; and 

 perhaps it is well that this is the case. Were it otherwise 

 we might be inclined to lament the fate of our descendants, 

 who for the next thousand years would have no scientific 

 occupation other than that of making collections and observa- 

 tions with the result of showing that their great-great-grand- 

 fathers were extremely clever, and knew everything : a dis- 

 covery that the Chinese have already made, with intellectual 

 results apparently very far from satisfactory — the highest 

 mental effort of the educated Celestial being, they say, the 

 admiration of Confucius. 



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