XXXVIII 

 BIRDS AND BUTTERFLIES 



BIOLOGICAL science is at present in a rather 

 peculiar position. Biologists are divided 

 into two parties. On the one side stand the 

 theorists and their followers ; on the other 

 the practical men who think for themselves. At 

 present, the theorists are the party in power (and they 

 are quite Lloyd-Georgian in their methods), while the 

 practical men, the breeders and the field naturalists, 

 form the opposition. The reason of the division is 

 that many facts, that have come to light lately, do not 

 fit in with the theories that hold the field. 



Now, when facts are discovered which militate 

 against a theory the proper course for the holder of the 

 theory is to test carefully the alleged facts, and if they 

 prove to be really facts to discard or modify his theory. 

 Unfortunately the professional biologists of to-day 

 do not usually follow this course. They have made 

 fetishes of their theories, which they worship as the 

 Israelites worshipped the golden calf. The consequence 

 is that they feel in honour bound either to ignore or to 

 gloss over the facts that are subversive of their fetishes. 

 When they write books in honour of their fetishes, they 



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