294 
ON THE VALUE OF PLATES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
effective and true, I might have agreed with him in reprobating this u abuse/’— 
but 1 cannot concede that in abandoning the subsidiary aid of prints, any com¬ 
mensurate advantage can arise, or that the persons so employed in getting up 
illustrative books are engaged in a work of supererogation. I never heard of any 
person objecting to the use of a museum—its advantages are allowed on all 
hands—and yet, is not that in fact a collection of pictures ? more perfect, indeed, 
than prints can possibly be, because they are the preserved objects of study 
themselves—and because they may be there seen in varied stages of growth. 
Yet they are motionless, testifying only to form and structure, but silent as to 
habit, food, or sound. And yet with these imperfections, a student will gain 
more practical knowledge from a week’s study in a museum, than from a year 
devoted to the toilsome process of gaining an “ appreciation of differences” from 
description, unelucidated, be it remembered, by the solitary gleam of a single plate. 
Whatever differences there may be in the constitution of minds, and in the relative 
development of the perceptive faculties, there is always a pleasure in proceeding 
from the known to the unknown;—hence the healthful stimulus afforded by the 
sight of museums—the removal thereby of doubts and difficulties, and the hopes 
of future successful enterprise thus engendered. The sight of plates acts in a 
similar manner—familiar things are reviewed—long clouds of doubts that have 
often tortured the mind are cleared away—hope revives, and the spirits are 
enlightened and purified for fresh effort. I confess 1 have no objection to receive 
help—no tenacious selfishness in withholding it; and as the economy of time is 
of immense importance—and as the majority of the lovers of Nature can only 
in general spare a portion of their time to their favourite pursuit, I do think that 
it is of importance in cases of doubt to take the benefit offered by an engraving’s aid, 
instead of losing half-a-day or more in a laborious examination, which at last 
the inadequacy of language leaves to a despairing and empirical guess, frequently 
wrong alter the employment of every effort of analyzation. 
As Mr. Rylands objects to the application of my unfortunate similes, I am 
afraid I shall be unsuccessful in pleasing him even now, yet I am tempted to try 
another, hoping that it will he as “ little likely to do harm,” as he imagines in the 
case of plates of the smaller Lepidoptera. What would be thought of a man who, 
travelling in an unknown region, rejected the proffered aid of an experienced 
guide, from the u philosophic pleasure” he conceived he should derive from finding 
his way alone, having a description of the country in his pocket. Surely if in 
such a case he became bewildered, benighted, and lost, he could only have himself 
to blame, and none could pity the privations thus entailed by his own obstinacy. 
—“ You had better take a guide,” said a man to me once when seeking a parti¬ 
cular spot, “ for if you get bewildered in the woods it will be difficult to get out 
without great loss of time;” but, Ass-like, I trusted to “ description” only, and 
