that could be taught in the schools, but lacking somehow the supreme
grace of the old English originality. They are first-rate specialists, I
allow; and I don't deny that a civilised country has all need of
specialists. Nay, I even admit that the day of the specialist has only
just begun. He will yet go far; he will impose himself and his yoke upon
us. But don't let us therefore make the grand mistake of concluding that
our fine old English birthright in science--the birthright that gave us
our Newtons, our Cavendishes, our Darwins, our Lyells--was all folly and
error. Don't let us spoil ourselves in order to become mere second-hand
Germans. Let us recognise the fact that each nation has a work of its
own to do in the world; and that as star from star, so one nation
differeth from another in glory. Let each of us thank the goodness and
the grace that on his birth have smiled, that he was born of English
breed, and not a German child.

"Don't you think," a military gentleman once said to me, "the Germans
are wonderful organisers?" "No," I answered, "I don't; but I think
they're excellent drill-sergeants."

There are people who drop German authorities upon you as if a Teutonic
name were guarantee enough for anything. They say, "Hausberger asserts,"
or "According to Schimmelpenninck." This is pure fetichism. Believe me,
your man of science isn't necessarily any the better because he comes to
you with the label, "Made in Germany." The German instinct is the
instinct of Frederick William of Prussia--the instinct of drilling. Very
thorough and efficient men in their way it turns out; men versed in all
the lore of their chosen subject. If they are also men of transcendent
ability (as often happens), they can give us a comprehensive view of
their own chosen field such as few Englishmen (except Sir Archibald
Geikie, and he's a Scot) can equal. If I wanted to select a learned man