The irony of history is nowhere more apparent than in science. Here we
see the men, over whose minds the coming events of the world of biology
cast their shadows, doing their best to spoil their case in stating it;
while the man who represented sound scientific method is doing his best
to stay the inevitable progress of thought and bolster up antiquated
traditions. The progress of knowledge during the last seventy years
enables us to see that neither Geoffroy, nor Cuvier, was altogether
right nor altogether wrong; and that they were meant to hunt m couples
instead of pulling against one another. Science has need of servants of
very different qualifications; of artistic constructors no less than of
men of business; of people to design her palaces and of others to see
that the materials are sound and well-fitted together; of some to spur
investigators, and of others to keep their heads cool. The only would-be
servants, who are entirely unprofitable, are those who do not take the
trouble to interrogate Nature, but imagine vain things about her; and
spin, from their inner consciousness, webs, as exquisitely symmetrical
as those of the most geometrical of spiders, but alas! as easily torn to
pieces by some inconsidered bluebottle of a fact.