SKETCH OF LIFE AND WORK 33 



I would give strict orders not to molest them ; for next 

 to the eagle — now altogether destroyed — the raven is 

 the greatest ornament of such a scene." 



Indeed there was no bird to be found in all his 

 wanderings which did not draw a warmth of sympathy 

 from his kindly heart ; and there are many passages in 

 his book on British birds, which, for picturesque beauty, 

 poetic feeling, or tender sympathy with nature and 

 every living creature that came under his observation, 

 can scarcely be surpassed. Yet he never allowed his 

 sympathetic feeling, or his appreciation of the pictur- 

 esque to interfere with his proper work as a scientific 

 ornithologist. To learn the facts about the habits and 

 lives of living birds was the main object of his many 

 wanderings ; and his power of imagination and sym 

 pathetic susceptibility, in place of hinderhig, helped 

 much, in his case, to the readier and clearer perception 

 of those facts, and to his capacity for making them 

 more vividly and attractively apparent to others — to 

 the non-scientific as well as to the scientific. 



There is another feature of the writer's mind of 

 much interest, which betrays itself in many passages 

 of his "great work," as well as in his other works 

 — that is an ever-present sense of the deep mystery 

 of Nature and of the limits of his power of insight, 

 however much he had been able to see more than 

 others of his generation. He was intensely worshipful 

 at Nature's shrine — all his best thought and feeling 

 often rising into reverential awe, and his heart over- 

 flowing with gratitude and thankfulness to the Author 



D 



