BIRDS.
Illustrated by COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY.
GILBERT WHITE AND “SELBORNE.”
SUPPOSE that a habit of minuteobservation of nature is one ofthe most difficult things toacquire, as it is one which isless generally pursued than anyother study. In almost all departmentsof learning and investigation there havebeen numberless works published to illustratethem, and text books would fillthe shelves of a large library. Thoreauin his “Walden” has shown an extremelyfine and close observation of the scenesin which his all too short life waspassed, but his object does not seem atany time to have been the study ofnature from an essential love of it, orto add to his own or the world’s knowledge.On the contrary, nature was theone resource which enabled him toexemplify his notions of independence,which were of such a sturdy and uncompromisingcharacter that Mr.Emerson, who had suffered some inconveniencefrom his experience ofThoreau as an inmate of his household,thought him fitter to meet occasionallyin the open air than as a guest attable and fireside. There is a deliciousharmony with nature in all that he haswritten, but his descriptions of out-of-doorlife invite us rather to indolentmusing than to investigation or study.Who after reading Izaak Walton everwent a-fishing with the vigor and enterpriseof Piscator? Washington Irvingallowed his cork to drift with thecurrent and lay down in the shadow ofa spreading oak to dream with the belovedold author.
In White’s “Natural History of Selborne” wehave a unique bookindeed, but of a far more generalinterest than its title would indicate.Pliny, the elder, was the father ofnatural history but to many of us GilbertWhite is entitled to that honor. Toan early edition of the book, withoutengravings, and much abridged, ascompared with Bohn’s, published in1851, many owe their first interest inthe subject.
Mr. Ireland in his charming little“Book Lover’s Enchiridion,” tells usthat when a boy he was so delightedwith it, that in order to possess a copyof his own (books were not so cheapas now) he actually copied out thewhole work. In a list of one hundredbooks, Sir John Lubbock mentionsit as “an inestimable blessing.”Edward Jesse, authorof “Gleanings in Natural History” attributeshis own pursuits as an out-door naturalistentirely to White’s example. Muchof the charm of the book consists inthe amiable character of the author, who
“——lived in solitude, midst trees and flowers,
Life’s sunshine mingling with its passing showers;
No storms to startle, and few clouds to shade
The even path his Christian virtues made.”
Very little is known of him beyond[Pg 42]what he has chosen to mention in hisdiaries, which were chiefly records ofhis daily studies and observations, andin his correspondence, from which the“history” is in fact made up. Fromthese it is evident that his habits weresecluded and that he was stronglyattached to the charms of rural life.He says the greater part of his timewas spent in literary occupations, andespecially in the study of nature. H