( Ixvi ) 
out by great thinkers, the expert biologist shows wisdom in 
giving his most serious attention only to those who are 
familiar with their data at first hand — who have themselves 
gleaned their information directly from Nature. By such 
workers only can the true value of the evidence be fairly 
weighed and estimated. I should be very sorry if the 
remarks which I have ventured to offer in the course of this 
address were to be interpreted into a general public invitation 
to speculate on biological problems. But I do raise the 
question here as to the kind of biological work which is to 
be recognized as a fitting preparation for the exercise of the 
speculative faculty. It used formerly to be asserted that he 
only is worthy of attention who has done systematic, i.e., 
taxonomic, work. I do not know whether this view is still 
entertained by entomologists ; if so I feel bound to express 
my dissent. It has been pointed out that the great theorisers 
have all done such work — that Darwin monographed the 
Cirripedia, and Huxley the oceanic Hydrozoa, and it has 
been said that Wallace's and Bates's contributions in this 
fi.eld have been their biological salvation. I yield to nobody 
in my recognition of the value and importance of taxonomic 
work, but the possibilities of biological investigation have 
developed to such an extent since Darwin's time that I do 
not think this position can any longer be seriously main- 
tained. It must be borne in mind that the illustrious author 
of the Origin of Species " had none of the opportunities for 
systematic training in biology which any student can now 
avail himself of. To him the monographing of the 
Cirripedia was, as Huxley states in a communication to 
Francis Darwin, ''a piece of critical self-discipline,"* and 
there can be no reasonable doubt that this value of systematic 
work will be generally conceded. That this kind of work 
gives the sole right to speculate at the present time is, 
however, quite another point. It might be argued with some 
show of reason that exclusive devotion to systematic work 
* Life and Letters, Vol. I., p. 348. Even in the days of my studentship, 
Huxley lectured on Natural History at the Royal School of Mines with the 
aid of diagrams and specimens only : practical work in the laboratory was 
unknown. 
