W.R.M. In your long association with the Field Club,
as member, Council Member, and as President, what aspect of
the club gave you the most satisfaction?
E.F.W. Meeting my fellow naturalists. The subject
matter of the discourses at the meetings was very often
very interesting, but what I liked doing was meeting my
fellows, in a way that was not otherwise possible. And all
sorts of charming people, semi—professional and amateur, of
all ages, all states of knowledge, all disciplines.
W.R.M. Imagine your disciples sitting about you. Have
you any message for them?
E.F.W. I would say to them, 'Read everything you can,
of any subject. Not just natural History, because they all
come together in some way at some time. And, if you train
your memory, you remember things that you think you've
forgotten. The more you read, the nicer life is the older
you get. I started reading when I was seven, and I've
never stopped. Don't specialise in your reading. The
worst people I meet are the specialists. They are terrible
people; they are so ignorant, except in their own tiny
facet of knowledge.
W.R.M. But we do have to have the specialists, don't we?
E.F.W. But I don't see why even specialists shouldn't
read widely. Think of the great Victorians, people like
Phillip Goss. There was not a discipline that he didn't
really write a book about. Darwin — he was a specialist,
and yet, somehow, he was able to have this other knowledge
as well.
W.R.M. Is this lack of wide knowledge a modern problem?
E.F.W. Yes. This worries me. I've never wanted to be
a specialist, and therefore I can't presume to criticise
specialisation, but I dislike it. I believe you'd find
that the ablest naturalists are not specialists, — I think
you will find they've got a very much greater general
knowledge, or a background of understanding. An
appreciation of the other disciplines; people like the great
Huxley did understand.
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