( Ixii ) 
observation."* In the same letter he remarks: "You say 
that you have been somewhat surprised at no notice having 
been taken of your paper in the Annals. [On the Law that 
has regulated the Introduction of New Species ; Ann. & Mag. 
Nat. Hist., 1855.] I cannot say that I am, for so very few 
naturalists care for anything beyond the mere descriptions of 
species." This statement of 1857 does not hold good in 
1896 ; other methods of biological research have been intro- 
duced — the road to biological fame is no longer through the 
sole channel of technical systematic work, and we owe it to 
the writer of that letter more than to any other worker and 
thinker of our time, that the horizon has been extended on 
all sides. 
The misapprehension to which my remarks may possibly 
give rise, and which I am most anxious to prevent, is that in 
urging the claim of the theoretical method I am introducing 
the danger of rash and promiscuous speculating by all kinds 
of dabblers in the subject. There is much justification for 
this attitude, but an analysis of the supposed danger will, I 
think, serve to show that it is not a very formidable one after 
all. It appears to me, moreover, that the advantage of 
giving an impetus to observation along preconceived lines 
far outweighs any passing danger arising from hasty specu- 
lation. It is notorious in the history of modern science that 
no single branch has escaped the efforts of well-intentioned, 
but quite irresponsible outsiders, to set our various houses in 
order for us. On critical examination it will be found, how- 
ever, that none of these attempts, even when they have been 
lucky enough to forestall the conclusions arrived at by legiti- 
mate methods, have led to any practical issue in the way of 
observation or research. I am addressing my remarks on 
the present occasion to a Society composed more or less of 
experts ; I am not inviting " the man in the street " to favour 
us with his views on this, that, or the other question, but I 
am asking the working entomologists among us to bear in 
mind that their studies may be directed so as to throw light 
on some of the broad biological problems of the day, if they 
* Life and Letters, Vol. XL, p. 108. 
