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NATURALISTS’ QUARTERLY,, 
A MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS OF 
NATURAL HISTORY IN ALL ITS BRANCHES. 
C A-&. I •£! 
PUBLISHED 
QUARTERLY. 
January, 1880. 
SUBSCRIPTION PRICE, 
50 Cts. PER YEAR. 
THE COLLECTOR A CIVILIZER. ; 
In that very pleasant little volume “Ferns in their Homes and Ours/’ 
the author, “in conclusion,” calls attention to the fact that a hobby of 
some sort is an important adjunct and healthy stimulant to the develop¬ 
ment of individual taste and culture. He says : “ Without an object w e 
walk aimlessly, we 1 ”ead aimlessly. The child who collects postage-stamps 
learns something of geography, and the coin-collector must acquire some¬ 
thing of history, that he may properly arrange his coins.” And again, 
“There is a large class of persons who are so fortunate (or unfortunate, 
according as they use or abuse the privilege) as to have nothing to do; 
or, to speak more exactly, have to do only what they choose. This class 
must have a hobby or they will rust out. Another class is engrossed by 
incessant professional work which leaves them every day cross and tired. 
These should have some outside hobby, or they will become one sided and 
crabbed, and wear out. Every person, old or youug, outside of an asylum 
for the insane, should have some one thing in which an intellectual inter¬ 
est is taken,—some hobby, or something that may grow into one . . . and 
that whether pursued in a scientific way or only as a pastime, it can in 
afiy event do no harm, but may be the cause of great and permanent 
good.” 
To this we add the testimony of the eminent naturalist and popular 
scientific instructor, Prof. Edw. S. Morse, who has but just returned from 
an engagement at the University of Tokio, in Japan. In a recent lecture 
upon the people of that wonderful country, he spoke of the antiquity of 
the custom which prevails there of collecting something. He said lie had 
seen numerous collections of porcelain ware and pottery that contained 
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