Marine Shells of New Zealand 
fieldian reproof, but that we can risk, that “there 
is no accounting for taste.’ Here I venture to 
differ. I think that where a lack of taste is plainly mani- 
fest, we shall find what Oliver Wendell Holmes calls a 
“mental astigmatism.” More probably there is no mental 
error of refraction (or if there be, it may be carefully 
corrected), but merely a wrong viewpoint is taken, even 
as an indifferent three-quarter face, from another aspect, 
may prove a lovely and perfect profile. Mediocrity, of 
course, we shall always have, and even for that we can be 
grateful; otherwise, how should we be able to value the 
best? Tastes and inclinations are often merely moods, 
acquired through environment and nurtured by tempera- 
ment. “Some men there are love not a gaping pig; others 
go mad if they behold a cat, a harmless, necessary cat.’’ 
And Shakespeare understood human nature like no other 
man, either before his time or since. 
You will be wondering, what in the world has this to 
do directly or indirectly with conchology? And I will tell 
you how the viewpoint affects everything. Now, one of the 
shells to be mentioned later on has been described by a man, 
well read, cultured and broadminded, as a “battered, un- 
even shell,” and, according to this meagre description, I 
found it, for a long time, impossible to identify this par- 
ticular species. And at last, what did I find? To my agree- 
able surprise a shell that conjured up a delightful vista of 
thought, reaching far away back to Tyndall’s “dim twi- 
light of antiquity,’ when dragons of tons weight hurtled 
through the air, and huge saurians wallowed and fought 
and loved and died in the seething flood flowing through 
the primeval forest. Then the very roughness of the shell 
suggested to my mind the old linen-fold panelling of Jaco- 
bean mansions, courts and palaces; the colouring, too, is 
reminiscent of the most luring inspirations of Leighton, 
soft blendings of tones and delicate draperies; while the 
T itcian is a hackneyed aphorism, worthy of Chester- 
3 
Sea Shells 
of New Zealand 
