THE NATURAL HISTORY OF DISTANT LANDS 



appeared naturalists had not even pigeon-holes ready t( 

 receive the new species. Ray, in the generation next 

 before Linnaeus, found it impossible to arrange the new- 

 fishes and plants which poured in from America alone. 

 Even the subject of geographical distribution, though 

 more manageable than most branches of biological 

 inquiry, could not be investigated to real profit. Europe 

 was as ill -prepared to grasp the new opportunities of 

 enlarging the knowledge of terrestrial life as politically 

 and morally ill-prepared to use her conquests in Mexico 

 and Peru to the lasting advantage of mankind. The 

 naturalists of Europe were untrained, and training was 

 hardly to be had. Here and there a man like Swam- 

 merdam might show how fruitful is the close study of a 

 few well-chosen animals and plants, but the lesson was 

 little heeded. Collectors went on loading their cabinets 

 and folios with ill-described and ill-understood objects, 

 seldom attempting close comparisons of distinct forms, 

 or investigating internal structure, or framing instructive 

 generalisations. It was not till the age of Buffon that 

 comprehensive and daring questions were raised in 

 earnest, and that the new sciences of geology and palae- 

 ontology began to enforce the pregnant thought that 

 facts unintelligible on the theory of sudden creation 

 might receive an explanation from long-continued 

 development. A new race of travellers (Pallas, Hum- 

 boldt, Robert Brown and Darwin) appeared, who cared 

 less about making collections than about the acquisition 

 of new ideas and the solution of problems. Even then 

 it was only the few who could restrain the passion for 

 mere acquisition. The infinite wealth of natural facts is 

 to this day an impediment to all naturalists except the 

 few who are content to remain ignorant of many things 

 in order that they may learn what is best worth knowing. 



