PURSUITS OF A SYSTEMATIC NATURALIST. 303 



natural history which deserves cultivation. They are 

 satisfied with having gathered a stock of entertaining 

 and instructive materials, to he subsequently worked up 

 into general results and large generalisations hy another 

 set of naturalists,, who take a different department in the 

 extension of knowledge. It unfortunately happens, 

 however, that men of all ranks are too apt to undervalue, 

 or to treat with affected contempt, those acquirements 

 of which they are ignorant. And as the business of the 

 field naturalist requires little or no exercise of the 

 higher powers of the mind, but may be pursued by any 

 one possessing a tact for observation, so we find that 

 the generality of these observers are too prone to fancy 

 that their pursuits alone lead to the only information on 

 natural history that is really worth acquiring. They 

 will tell you to throw aside books and systems, and as- 

 sure you that "a few walks in the fields" are sufficient 

 to make <( a very good naturalist." This royal road to 

 science is no doubt very enticing to the young student, 

 particularly if it is promulgated from the chair of a pro- 

 fessor ; but absurdities like this are unworthy of refu- 

 tation. We must inform such sanguine beginners, that 

 not only many walks must be taken, but many years 

 consumed, before he will earn the reputation of being 

 " a very good naturalist ;" and that, when this title has 

 been acquired, he will then, if he has good sense and 

 real talent, be conscious himself that the praise is un- 

 deserved. We might be tempted merely to smile at 

 such folly, and only to pity the contracted minds of 

 those who gave it currency, were it not for the mis- 

 chievous effect that such notions may have upon the 

 young student, from their tendency to repress all mental 

 exertion, and all aspirations after any higher knowledge 

 than the composition of a dabchick's nest, or the colour 

 of a sparrow's egg. Inflated ideas of our own pursuits, 

 and unmeasured abuse of others, are the natural results 

 of ignorance and conceit. 



(369-) The business of the systematic or closet na- 

 turalist commences where that of the practical observer 



