Genre:

Regular Feature, Biography

Subjects:

Imperialism, Natural History, Anti-Scientism, Exploration, Race

People mentioned:

Charles G Gordon , Henry M Stanley

    As governor of the African Equatorial Province, Emin Pasha was an 'illustration of the scientist proconsul' who 'can never feel that politics are other than a disagreeable interruption of the much more important pursuits of beetle-catching and bird-collecting' (387). However, his writings on African natural history are as humourless and uninspiring as 'a catalogue of the natural history department at South Kensington', and he describes humans 'more as specimens than fellow creatures'. Nevertheless, he is 'more than a man who, as Wordsworth bitterly said, "Would peep and botanize upon his mother's grave". He would do that, no doubt, and think that it was the best way of doing honour to his mother; but he would do more than that'. For instance, although he is a scientist 'he has within him a heart that occasionally finds expression even in protest against the scientific spirit'. (388)