There is no being so homely, none so venomous, none so encased in
slime or armed with sword-like spines, none so sluggish or so abrupt
in behavior, that it cannot win our favor and admiration--the more,
the better we know it. However it may be in human society, with
the naturalist it is not familiarity which breeds contempt. On the
contrary, it has been said, with every step of his advancing knowledge
he finds in what was at first indifferent, unattractive, or repulsive,
some wonder of mechanism, some exquisite beauty of detail, some
strangeness of habit. Shame he feels at having so long had eyes which
seeing saw not; regret he feels that the limits of his life should
be continually contracting, while the boundaries of his science are
always expanding; but so long as he can study and examine, he is so far
contented and happy.