1883.] 



MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 



163 



into utter darkness, for the lack of 

 self-discipline ? All systematic study 

 is a discipline for the mind. Of all 

 studies the classificatory sciences are 

 the best disciplinarians. The drill 

 sergeant is invisible : there is no sense 

 of constraint ; there is no feeling of 

 rebellion against authority; the im- 

 pulse is gentle as the touch of a 

 feather, potent as a lance of steel. 

 The habit of grouping or classing 

 objects according to affinities or re- 

 semblances, arranging in genera, fami- 

 lies, and orders, commends itself to 

 the mind with experience, that, all 

 unconsciously, the love of order 

 spreads from the hours of recreation 

 to hours of work, and the pastime of 

 the evening benefits the business of 

 the morrow. Let no one dream that 

 time thus spent is lost. Atom by 

 atom the little worms may build un- 

 seen, beneath the surface of the sea, 

 but by and by the coral island be- 

 comes a hard, inflexible rock. Your 

 earnings, if the coin be good, will be 

 entrusted to a good banker, and the 

 principal will realize you a good in- 

 terest in some future day. A little 

 experience may be of no use to you 

 to-da}', but twenty years hence it may 

 be worth gold. It matters not now 

 that the imprisoned steam blows off 

 the lid of a kettle ; in twenty years it 

 drives a railway train from Darlington 

 to York. 



Undoubtedly temperament is a great 

 factor in the account. Studcntia nas- 

 citiir noil fit. The student is born, 

 not made. There are men possessed 

 of minds that cannot remain idle ; 

 there are others which are spurred 

 into activity only by continuous exer- 

 tion. The latter seldom pay for the 

 spurring ; the former only need the 

 rein. It is our duty to point the road, 

 and not to drive men into it. The 

 mariner who is not warned by the 

 sight of a storm drum will not be 

 convinced by kicking. . . . Any 

 and ever}'^ science gains by ac- 

 cession of earnest but humble 

 workers. Amateur scientists, if you 

 will, lovers of science as a recreation 



— call them by any name, so long as 

 they do not treat as absolute plaything 

 that which they use as one — these 

 may do much, and might do more, for 

 universal knowledge. From the ranks 

 of these, heroes may come. A true 

 word is often spoken in jest ; truth 

 may be even traced to a plaything, 

 A kite may bring down the electric 

 current from the clouds. We who 

 profess to follow some branch of 

 natural science, as the business of 

 our lives, cannot afford to laugh at, or 

 despise, those who use it as a pastime ; 

 we ourselves began it, perhaps, in a 

 like manner. We were not always so 

 earnest; we dallied with the tempter, 

 played and danced about it, but at 

 last were caught in the toils. Many 

 a man has played himself into science 

 in earnest. 



Most societies like ours do not 

 make any pretence to be more than 

 plaj'grounds of science. Their mem- 

 bers work at their lessons in a very 

 strict school day by day, and these 

 are their plavgrounds, in which they 

 recreate body and mind by a good 

 romp. The wisest of kings has said 

 that there is " a time for work and a 

 time for play," and they would be 

 fools who employed all time for one 

 or the other. Let not the beetle- 

 catcher or the bug-hunter apologize 

 for himself that he is only an amateur ; 

 rather let him thank God that 

 he is not as some other men, 

 and take courage. Time was when 

 Hugh Miller was a plain stone-mason, 

 and nothing more. Then, as he 

 chipped at the old red sandstone, he 

 made playthings and friends of the 

 odd fish he found there. By and by 

 he grew in earnest, and worked at 

 them, but at first he only played with 

 them. Playthings to-day may be tools 

 to-morrow. It depends more upon 

 the child than the toy how long child- 

 hood will last. Whoever has learnt 

 to look upon Nature with a loving, an 

 enquiring eye, has taken a first step 

 towards understanding her. 



Those who would catalogue the ad- 

 vantages of rambling in the bye- 



