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 be subsequently worked up 
into general results and large generalisations by 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. Andas 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 ege. 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 
. 
