An Introduction to a Biology 



because it tends to make the triumph of truth the main 

 object and truth itself a secondary one. We are not arguing 

 that the Mendelian theory is untrue, but that the atti- 

 tude of anyone daring to say of anything " this is true '' 

 should be apologetic rather than victorious. 

 [From a review, Nature, May 23rd, 1907.] 



The most fruitful source of progress is a new way of 

 looking at things, and such new points of view result in 

 the destruction of old classifications and the need for new 

 ones. In biology, investigators will soon be classified, not 

 according to the group of animals or plants with which they 

 deal, but according to the particular phase that interests 

 them of the problem of the " fundamental nature of living 

 things," which is the ultimate goal of biological inquiry. 



[From a review, Nature, August 3rd, 1905.] 



This book is not written by a man red-handed, fresh 

 from an encounter with Nature. If his hands needed wash- 

 ing before he wrote, it was to remove the dust of books. 

 Would that the water could have removed the taint of 

 much reading also. The notion that the truth must be 

 sought in books is still widely prevalent, and the present 

 dearth of illiterate men constitutes a serious menace to the 

 advancement of knowledge. . . . 



Earnestness is not a sufficient qualification for author- 

 ship. 



[From a review, entitled " Another Book on Evolution," 

 Nature, 1911.] 



It would be a most fascinating task to trace the evolu- 

 tion of modern methods of dealing with the problems of 

 life. Differentiation has taken place so extraordinarily 

 quickly. The time is long past when one man can attempt 

 to grapple with the whole problem. Not only so, but the 



117 



