152 The late Professor Edward Forbes 1 s 



You will have the advantage over many a naturalist at home ; 

 for there is no advantage in our department of science so great 

 as that conferred by travel. The mind becomes warped and 

 narrowed when limited to the contemplation of one set and con- 

 dition of objects. Observation is exercised, but without the 

 check and gloss of sufficient comparison, and we think we see 

 all, when we are regarding but a fragment. The zoologist and 

 botanist can, it is true, by means of menageries, gardens, and 

 museums, gather together readily the fruits of travel. Still, 

 the natural combinations, so to speak, of living beings, are not 

 fully and fairly seen through such artificial media. The mi- 

 neralogist can do much in the cabinet and in the laboratory ; 

 but there is a mineralogy on a grand scale that must be studied 

 in the open air, and in the recesses of the earth. It is cus- 

 tomary to say that minerals are the same everywhere they oc- 

 cur : but this is not strictly true ; and the curious and minute 

 differences of constitution, and even of crystallization, which 

 distinguish the minerals of one region from those of another, are 

 indicative of phenomena which have yet to be worked out in 

 the wide geographical fields. The geologist, though he may 

 ground himself thoroughly in his science at home, above all 

 other naturalists, requires to correct and extend his know- 

 ledge by wide-spread research and observation ; and, when Sir 

 Charles Lyell said that there are three requisites for a geolo- 

 gist, and that these are, " Travel, travel, travel !" he gave that 

 advice which, if it had been the doctrine of the illustrious Wer- 

 ner, would have placed his favourite science in a very differ- 

 ent position half a century ago, and freed it at an earlier day 

 from the trammels of local prejudice and partial knowledge. 



Now to those who must stay at home — and they are many — 

 the greatest service that can be conferred by him who travels 

 is the communication of correct scientific observations. All 

 of you, then, who look forward to see the wonders of foreign 

 regions, prepare yourselves, in good time, to understand and 

 describe them ; and let those to whom the British islands are 

 to be a life residence, learn also, in order that they may un- 

 derstand the new facts that will thus be brought to light. 



When urging upon some of my friends the benefit and de- 

 light they would derive from natural history studies, I have 



