1 4 8 The late Professor Edward Forbes' s 



If we regard the position and condition of the natural his- 

 tory sciences at the present moment, we may consider the age 

 and time most favourable to the successful study of them. 

 But Ave must not deceive ourselves, and fancy that because 

 natural history is popular, it is therefore generally understood. 



Were we to form our opinion from the number of books on 

 all branches of the science, issued almost monthly from the 

 press, in Britain alone, and perused with avidity, we might 

 suppose ourselves a nation of naturalists, and fairly reckon 

 upon finding every tenth educated person we meet versed 

 even in the technicalities of zoology, botany, and geology. 

 Yet is it so ? I need scarcely reply in the negative. On the 

 contrary, we are too well aware of the prevailing and wide-spread 

 ignorance of these studies. The fact is this, the books in 

 question are bought and read ; the interesting statements they 

 contain excite momentary attention and pleasure ; even scien- 

 tific classifications seem pleasing, because suggestive of well 

 digested order. But the knowledge so gained is word-know- 

 ledge only. Now this kind of knowledge can take no root, 

 unless it be accompanied by a knowledge of things and beings. 

 When Oliver Goldsmith, genius as he was, tried his hand at a 

 " History of Animated Nature," and a very delightful book he 

 made of it, he knew so little of the chief subject of his chapters 

 viz., quadrupeds, that he described the cow as casting her 

 horns annually. There is no more dangerous experiment than 

 that of writing about things without a practical acquaintance 

 with them. And there is no information which passes more 

 speedily and thoroughly away from the memory than that of 

 natural history, if it be learned from books only. 



The remedy is an easy one. Verify what you read in your 

 book, and hear in your class-room, by observation in the field, 

 and in the museum. Observe for yourselves. Try to decipher 

 the structure, and make out the names of animate and inani- 

 mate objects from actual specimens. Even to do this in 

 the most rudimentary fashion is better than to rest content 

 with reading the most lucid descriptions. Many a man can 

 define a vertebrated, an articulate or a radiate animal, with 

 out an erroneous expression, and yet be sadly puzzled as to 

 what some unaccustomed specimen placed before him might 



