Why should the botanist, geologist or other-ist give himself such airs
over the draper’s assistant? Is it because he names his plants or
specimens with Latin names and divides them into genera and species,
whereas the draper does not formulate his classifications, or at any rate
only uses his mother tongue when he does? Yet how like the sub-divisions
of textile life are to those of the animal and vegetable kingdoms! A few
great families—cotton, linen, hempen, woollen, silk, mohair, alpaca—into
what an infinite variety of genera and species do not these great
families subdivide themselves? And does it take less labour, with less
intelligence, to master all these and to acquire familiarity with their
various habits, habitats and prices than it does to master the details of
any other great branch of science? I do not know. But when I think of
Shoolbred’s on the one hand and, say, the ornithological collections of
the British Museum upon the other, I feel as though it would take me less
trouble to master the second than the first.