Correspondents and Critics. 295 



fessional is that the life-long amateur has neces- 

 sarily spent his days in vain ; that he has merely 

 tickled his fancy and pleased himself during 

 leisure hours, but never gained much knowl- 

 edge or acquired skill ; in short, merely hovered 

 about the skirts of the omniscient professional, 

 ever looking at the unattainable with longing 

 eyes and ultimately dying in despair. This, I 

 say, is the view of the professional, and just so 

 far as it is true the professional is apt to make 

 himself ridiculous. There are men learned in 

 the law who are not lawyers ; men who are 

 deeply versed in theological discussion, yet are 

 neither bishop, priest, nor deacon ; men who 

 know more than the rudiments of medicine, 

 though this matters not, seeing every man is 

 a fool or physician at forty, yet lay no claim 

 to M.D. after their names. So, too, it is in 

 the study of Nature. There are many men, 

 amateurs or lovers, let us say, of birds, that are 

 better authorities, so far as their own neighbor- 

 hoods are concerned, than the petulant profes- 

 sional who calmly announces that he has no 

 quarrel with amateurs. Who under the broad 

 canopy of heaven cares if he has? What the 



