COMMON THING S." 



Even without going' from our own neighbourhood, or withdrawing from spots 

 with which we have been long intimate, how much may be learnt in addition to what 

 we yet know. It is not always the animals that we are most famiiiar with by name 

 and frequency of occurrence whose history we understand the best. 



Rev. L. Jenyns. 



SOME years since, when "national education" 

 was in danger of running mad. Lord Asbburton 

 made an effort to bring the system back to the 

 bounds of reason and common sense by offering 

 prizes for the successful teaching of " common 

 things." It has been said tliat the effort was a 

 failure, as compared with what was hoped of it ; 

 but it is not always easy to set down in figures, and 

 draw up a correct balance-sheet, of such ventures 

 until the disturbance caused by a sudden check sub- 

 sides again into a calm. There is no doubt that the 

 "skid" on tlie wheel did cause a check, did raise a 

 dust, and did prevent the "old stage" dashing 

 recklessly downhill to a final " smash." It is only 

 in contemplating what the direction and aim of the 

 dominant system is, and forecasting its horoscope, 

 or determining in our own minds what that system 

 might, in its working, be carried to, that we can 

 imagine the benefits of a seasonable check. We 

 can forgive the error of rushing to the opposite 

 extreme, because we have faith that in the future it 

 will be the medluM that prevails. 



This is applicable, in its spirit, if not in letter, to 

 other than national education, and bears its moral, 

 which he who runs may read. 



There is cause for regret that in the study of the 

 natural history sciences, the true aim is so often and 

 studiously obscured by pedantry and ostentation, 

 induced, perliaps, by a false notion of the end which 

 is sought to be attained. The pursuit of science 

 should cause the abnegation of self; instead of 

 which, it is, alas ! too often immolated at the shrine 

 of selfishness. 



These remarks do not apply to the true lovers of 

 science. Let those who deserve the questionable 

 honour appropriate it to themselves. 



To collect any number of wild flowers, weeds, 

 grasses, or twigs of trees, di-y them between sheets 

 of blotting-paper, then get a friend to aid in attach- 

 ing to each a label with a Latin name and a date, is 

 no better than " haymaking." 



To catch any number of butterflies and moths, 

 I)in them out at certain angles on pieces of cork, 

 and when dry to transfer them to glazed boxes 



with a little ticket, on which some imposing word 

 stands, in all the glory of small capitals, and which, 

 perhaps, some obliging expert has helped in placing, 

 only deserves the name of " flycatching." 



Haymaking and flycatching may be very healthy 

 occupations for the body, but they do not therefore 

 rise to the dignity of science, or merit regard as 

 intellectual pursuits. 



We by no means deprecate the practice of form- 

 ing a herbarium or a collection of insects, but we 

 have a word or two to say about this same hay- 

 making and flycatching, believing it to be a 

 " delusion and a snare." In itself, collecting is not 

 science, but an aid to its prosecution. A cabinet 

 and a herbarium are only tools wherewith work of a 

 certain kind may be done, and a man is no more a 

 botanist or entomologist on account of their posses- 

 sion than another may be a skilled carpenter because 

 he has a good chest of chisels and planes. Each 

 may be the means whereby a certain end is to be 

 attained ; the mistake consists in regarding the 

 means as the end. It is too much the habit with 

 amateurs to flatter themselves into the belief, 

 because they have made good collections (by some 

 means named correctly), that therefore they are 

 scientific men. What a shock it would be to their 

 feelings to tell them the sober truth, that they 

 are only haymakers or flycatchers. How have the 

 individual specimens been named, in the majority of 

 cases, in the collections of such mere collectors ? 

 If they can lay their hands upon their hearts and 

 affirm that they have named them all themselves, 

 how has it been done ? Surely it is no difficult task 

 in these modern days to obtain access to accurate 

 herbaria and cabinets, and by comparison, or rather, 

 by matching form against form ; or by the aid of 

 figures hi the numerous illustrated works, it may be 

 quite possible that an entire collection has been 

 named, without reference to a generic or specific 

 description, or a just appreciation of any but the 

 most prominent and characteristic differences dis- 

 cernible at a superficial glance, and without the least 

 attempt at analytical examination. How much 

 botany, for instance, is there in determining that 



