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ent. Undoubtedly the worker who gives accurate and detailed accounts of his genera is- 

 entitled to more praise. As to species, and I have worked much with specific diagnoses 

 in different languages during the past thirty years, there is no standard except recognis- 

 ability for their validity. And this is imparted by a figure very well, generally indeed 

 much better than by a description. Hence a figure, without description, should secure 

 acceptance for the specific name attached. Although the arts of painting and writing 

 have separated, a fundamental idea unites them and the author and the painter may 

 still be compared. For primitive man expressed his idea by picturing the object before 

 letters were invented. Some writers are like scene-painters, laying the colour on thickly 

 and drawing their outlines boldly. They allow for the distance from which their work 

 will be viewed. The distance of the spectator from the object to be viewed is replaced 

 in letters by the ignorance of the reader of the subject discussed. He is impressed by 

 the treatment because he does not know the subject in its detail, being carried away by 

 the distinctness of the main idea, adopting the writer's view easily because forcibly and 

 singly impressed upon his mind. Other writers indulge in detail work all finely laid on ; 

 they are like painters in miniature whose work is executed and may be studied under a 

 glass, of whose general subject, as a whole, one may lose something in following the parts 

 This comparison is often in my mind between painters and authors so that the shelves of 

 my library seem like a gallery of paintings, mental pictures hang about the titles on the 

 back of the books, pictures affecting me more or less pleasantly. In my thoughts I make 

 the good qualities of many entomological writers my own and thoroughly enjoy them. 

 The splendid industry of Mr. W. H. Edwards, the scholarship of Mr. Scudder, Dr. 

 Packard's talent, the thoroughness of Prof. Fernald, the clearness and gentleness of Prof. 

 Saunders — all come home to me. And Dr. Harris impresses me by his largeness and 

 earnestness. A homely landscape with shade and sun, flower and bee. This largeness 

 and fine simplicity may be influenced to some extent by his surroundings, by the great 

 and venerated University near his work. But the natural man is evidently superior to 

 his surroundings, rises above them at times, although the nearness to such a centre of 

 education gives both elevation and harmony to the soul disposed to receive the impres- 

 sion. All these entomologists are men of the first class, with faults of the second, not 

 men of the second class with faults of the first. About all our work there is a sense of 

 incompleteness, but to ensure our enjoyment the incompleteness must come as an after 

 taste, not at once offend our palate. In most departments of thought there is some one 

 author who, by his calmness and reasonableness, gives us confidence and prevents us from 

 being carried off our balance by the assertions and claims of the rest. Dr. Harris seems 

 to perform this useful office in the literature of entomology ; so that, from his writings, 

 one obtains a needed refreshment. He is so genuine, so full of his subject and yet so 

 modest and unobtrusive. The plant of entomology is growing ever, spreading into our 

 lives and affording occupation for many busy workers. .But it may be long ere we meet 

 one like Dr. Harris. The personality of man has a feeble beginning, is so little differ- 

 entiated, but at length it out-tops the universe. A chip of the -world which seems 

 greater than the whole. So, in the world of entomology, Dr. Harris will always seem to 

 have been a great man. All writers appear to stand at different angles to the truth, 

 which, as Turgeniew says, we cannot grasp as with hands. The position which Dr. 

 Harris occupies as to the truth which is in the science of entomology, is most direct. 

 In the meantime we are year by year adding to the picture of the science, filling out the 

 pattern after Mature, describing species after species. When shall we get to the end of 

 our catalogues? — there is another kind of moth Jound in Massachusetts. 



