100 COLLOQUIA ENTOMOLOGICA. 



employed for that purpose the httle brain which Providence 

 had been pleased to allot them. 



Erro. I have often been amused to hear the talk of those 

 who pass current for philosophers : it seems a heterogeneous 

 conglomeration of the opinion of others learned by rote. In 

 my opinion, the original thinker is the only philosopher — the 

 man of books a mere parrot. 



Ent. Your number of philosophers would be very small, 

 methinks, Roey : I never recollect meeting with one. 



Erro. The learned fool, like an animal, lives on the gross 

 food of earth ; the original mind, like the more delicate 

 plant, thrives on the breath of heaven. 



Ent. I understand you, I think: but a granary and a 

 mine were a more apt, though a less beautiful, simile. The 

 book-learned head is a granary well stored from without ; 

 while the riches of a truly great and powerful mind are like 

 those of a mine — its own. I never hear a good idea expressed 

 that is not old to me ; if new, I find it worthless. And why is 

 this? Because men refuse to think: it is too hard work. 

 Believe me, a thinker is as rare as a phcenix. 



Erro. And has ever been so. Plato, Aristotle, Newton, 

 have been thinkers ; perhaps Locke. 



Ent. And, certainly, the younger MacLeay, the entomo- 

 logist. From this fear, or dislike, or, shall I say it, incapacity 

 for thinking, arises our present ignorance ? What if you and I 

 were parrot-masters of all that exists in print at this moment ; 

 we should not add one iota to the general stock of knowledge : 

 and yet there is no man, no soklisant philosopher on earth, 

 but would consider this the very climax of his wishes. Let us 

 strike out a new road : let us strive, of our own resources, to 

 enlighten what is obscure ; to discover what is hidden. The 

 desire to know, is the talisman whose touch solves mystery. 

 The pursuit of truth ensures its capture. 



Erro. Instinct. Moff, you are wandering. 



Ent. Ah ! the statement I made, you seemed to think, 

 required logic and argumentative powers to sustain : no such 

 thing. Divest your mind of all the nonsense you may have met 

 with in Essays on Instinct, and such trumpery, and look only 

 at naked facts. Select a prominent example of each form ; for 

 instance, as a vertebrate with concentrated brain, the elephant ; 

 as an annulose with diffused brain, the ant. My dear friend. 



