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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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