574 MERISTIC VARIATION. [part I. 



But beyond general impression, in this, the most fascinating 

 part of the whole problem, there is still no guide. The only way 

 in which we may hope to get at the truth is by the organization of 

 systematic experiments in breeding, a class of research that calls 

 perhaps for more patience and more resources than any other form 

 of biological inquiry. Sooner or later such investigation will be 

 undertaken and then we shall begin to know. 



Meanwhile, much may be done to further the Study of Varia- 

 tion even by those who have none of the paraphernalia of modern 

 science at command. Many of the problems of Variation are pre- 

 eminently suited for investigation by simple means. If we are to 

 get further with these problems it will be done, I take it, chiefly 

 by study of the common forms of life. There is no common shell 

 or butterfly of whose variations something would not be learnt were 

 some hundreds of the same species collected from a few places and 

 statistically examined in respect of some varying character. Any- 

 one can take part in this class of work, though few do. 



At the present time those who are in contact with the facts and 

 material necessary for this study care little for the problem, or at 

 least rarely make it the first of their aims, and on the other hand 

 those who care most for the problem have hoped to solve it in 

 another way. 



These things attract men of two classes, in tastes and tempera 

 ment distinct, each having little sympathy or even acquaintance 

 with the work of the other. Those of the one class have felt the 

 attraction of the problem. It is the challenge of Nature that 

 calls them to work. But disgusted with the superficiality of 

 "naturalists" they sit down in the laboratory to the solution of 

 the problem, hoping that the closer they look the more truly will 

 they see. For the living things out of doors, they care little. Such 

 work to them is all vague. With the other class it is the living 

 thing that attracts, not the problem. To them the methods of 

 the first school are frigid and narrow. Ignorant of the skill and of 

 the accurate, final knowledge that the other school has bit by bit 

 achieved, achievements that are the real glory of the method, the 

 "naturalists" hear onlv those theoretical conclusions which the 

 laboratories from time to time ask them to accept. With senses 

 quickened by the range and fresh air of their own work they feel 

 keenly how crude and inadequate are these poor generalities, and 

 for what a small and conventional world they are devised. Dis- 

 appointed with the results they condemn the methods of the 

 others, knowing nothing of their real strength. So it happens 

 that for them the study of the problems of life and of Species 

 becomes associated with crudity and meanness of scope. Beginning 

 as naturalists they end as collectors, despairing of the problem, 

 Turning for relief to the tangible business of classification, account- 

 ing themselves happy if they can keep their species apart, caring 



