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glaucus-第6部分
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as well as earnest research; is concerned; whom England has ever
seen; was the Devonshire squire; Colonel George Montagu; of whom
the late E。 Forbes well says; that 〃had he been educated a
physiologist〃 (and not; as he was; a soldier and a sportsman); 〃and
made the study of Nature his aim and not his amusement; his would
have been one of the greatest names in the whole range of British
science。〃 I question; nevertheless; whether he would not have lost
more than he would have gained by a different training。 It might
have made him a more learned systematizer; but would it have
quickened in him that 〃seeing〃 eye of the true soldier and
sportsman; which makes Montagu's descriptions indelible word…
pictures; instinct with life and truth? 〃There is no question;〃
says E。 Forbes; after bewailing the vagueness of most naturalists;
〃about the identity of any animal Montagu described。 。 。 。 He was a
forward…looking philosopher; he spoke of every creature as if one
exceeding like it; yet different from it; would be washed up by the
waves next tide。 Consequently his descriptions are permanent。〃
Scientific men will recognize in this the highest praise which can
be bestowed; because it attributes to him the highest faculty … The
Art of Seeing; but the study and the book would not have given
that。 It is God's gift wheresoever educated: but its true school…
room is the camp and the ocean; the prairie and the forest; active;
self…helping life; which can grapple with Nature herself: not
merely with printed…books about her。 Let no one think that this
same Natural History is a pursuit fitted only for effeminate or
pedantic men。 I should say; rather; that the qualifications
required for a perfect naturalist are as many and as lofty as were
required; by old chivalrous writers; for the perfect knight…errant
of the Middle Ages: for (to sketch an ideal; of which I am happy
to say our race now affords many a fair realization) our perfect
naturalist should be strong in body; able to haul a dredge; climb a
rock; turn a boulder; walk all day; uncertain where he shall eat or
rest; ready to face sun and rain; wind and frost; and to eat or
drink thankfully anything; however coarse or meagre; he should know
how to swim for his life; to pull an oar; sail a boat; and ride the
first horse which comes to hand; and; finally; he should be a
thoroughly good shot; and a skilful fisherman; and; if he go far
abroad; be able on occasion to fight for his life。
For his moral character; he must; like a knight of old; be first of
all gentle and courteous; ready and able to ingratiate himself with
the poor; the ignorant; and the savage; not only because foreign
travel will be often otherwise impossible; but because he knows how
much invaluable local information can be only obtained from
fishermen; miners; hunters; and tillers of the soil。 Next; he
should be brave and enterprising; and withal patient and undaunted;
not merely in travel; but in investigation; knowing (as Lord Bacon
might have put it) that the kingdom of Nature; like the kingdom of
heaven; must be taken by violence; and that only to those who knock
long and earnestly does the great mother open the doors of her
sanctuary。 He must be of a reverent turn of mind also; not rashly
discrediting any reports; however vague and fragmentary; giving man
credit always for some germ of truth; and giving Nature credit for
an inexhaustible fertility and variety; which will keep him his
life long always reverent; yet never superstitious; wondering at
the commonest; but not surprised by the most strange; free from the
idols of size and sensuous loveliness; able to see grandeur in the
minutest objects; beauty; in the most ungainly; estimating each
thing not carnally; as the vulgar do; by its size or its
pleasantness to the senses; but spiritually; by the amount of
Divine thought revealed to Man therein; holding every phenomenon
worth the noting down; believing that every pebble holds a
treasure; every bud a revelation; making it a point of conscience
to pass over nothing through laziness or hastiness; lest the vision
once offered and despised should be withdrawn; and looking at every
object as if he were never to behold it again。
Moreover; he must keep himself free from all those perturbations of
mind which not only weaken energy; but darken and confuse the
inductive faculty; from haste and laziness; from melancholy;
testiness; pride; and all the passions which make men see only what
they wish to see。 Of solemn and scrupulous reverence for truth; of
the habit of mind which regards each fact and discovery; not as our
own possession; but as the possession of its Creator; independent
of us; our tastes; our needs; or our vain…glory; I hardly need to
speak; for it is the very essence of a nature's faculty … the very
tenure of his existence: and without truthfulness science would be
as impossible now as chivalry would have been of old。
And last; but not least; the perfect naturalist should have in him
the very essence of true chivalry; namely; self…devotion; the
desire to advance; not himself and his own fame or wealth; but
knowledge and mankind。 He should have this great virtue; and in
spite of many shortcomings (for what man is there who liveth and
sinneth not?); naturalists as a class have it to a degree which
makes them stand out most honourably in the midst of a self…seeking
and mammonite generation; inclined to value everything by its money
price; its private utility。 The spirit which gives freely; because
it knows that it has received freely; which communicates knowledge
without hope of reward; without jealousy and rivalry; to fellow…
students and to the world; which is content to delve and toil
comparatively unknown; that from its obscure and seemingly
worthless results others may derive pleasure; and even build up
great fortunes; and change the very face of cities and lands; by
the practical use of some stray talisman which the poor student has
invented in his laboratory; … this is the spirit which is abroad
among our scientific men; to a greater degree than it ever has been
among any body of men for many a century past; and might well be
copied by those who profess deeper purposes and a more exalted
calling; than the discovery of a new zoophyte; or the
classification of a moorland crag。
And it is these qualities; however imperfectly they may be realized
in any individual instance; which make our scientific men; as a
class; the wholesomest and pleasantest of companions abroad; and at
home the most blameless; simple; and cheerful; in all domestic
relations; men for the most part of manful heads; and yet of
childlike hearts; who have turned to quiet study; in these late
piping times of peace; an intellectual health and courage which
might have made them; in more fierce and troublous times; capable
of doing good service with very different instruments than the
scalpel and the microscope。
I have been sketching an ideal: but one which I seriously
recommend to the consideration of all parents; for; though it be
impossible and absurd to wish that every young man should grow up a
naturalist by profession; yet this age offers no more wholesome
training; both moral and intellectual; than that which is given by
instilling into the young an early taste for outdoor physical
science。 The education of our children is now more than ever a
puzzling problem; if by education we mean the development of the
whole humanity; not merely of some arbitrarily chosen part of it。
How to feed the imagination with wholesome food; and teach it to
despise French novels; and that sugared slough of sentimental
poetry; in comparison with which the old fairy…tales and ballads
were manful and rational; how to counteract the tendency to
shallowed and conceited sciolism; engendered by hearing popular
lectures on all manner of subjects; which can only be really learnt
by stern methodic study; how to give habits of enterprise;
patience; accurate observation; which the counting…house or the
library will never bestow; above all; how to develop the physical
powers; without engendering brutality and coarseness … are
questions becoming daily more and more puzzling; while they need
daily more and more to be solved; in an age of enterprise; travel;
and emigration; like the present。 For the truth must be told; that
the great majority of men who are now distinguished by commercial
success; have had a training the directly opposite to that which
they are giving to their sons。 They are for the most part men who
have migrated from the country to the town; and had in their youth
all the advantages of a sturdy and manful hill…side or sea…side
training; men whose bodies were developed; and their lungs fed on
pure breezes; long
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