THE HEV. QTTiBERT WHITE. 12t 



confessed, that the economy of the several kinds of crickets, 

 and the distinction between the stock-dove and the ring- 

 dove, are humble pursuits, and ^ill be esteemed trivial by 

 many; perhaps by some to be objects of ridicule. However, 

 before we condemn any pursuits which contribute so much 

 to health by calling us abroad, let us consider how the 

 studious have employed themselves in their closets. In a 

 former century, the minds of the learned were engaged in 

 determining whether the name of the Eoman poet should 

 be spelt Vergilius or Yirgilius ; and the number of letters 

 in the name of Shakespear still remains a matter of much 

 solicitude and criticism. Nor can we but think that the 

 conjectures about the migration of Hirundines are fully as 

 interesting as the Chattertonian controversy. 



" "We could have wished that this gentleman had uniformly, 

 as he has frequently, used the Linnaean names. No naturalist 

 can now converse intelligibly in any other language than 

 that of the celebrated Swede. And impartiality compels us 

 to say, that we are disappointed in not finding a particular 

 account of the tillage of the district where Selborne is situate. 

 A person with this writer's patient observation would have 

 made many remarks highly valuable. Men of intelligence, 

 like him, are wanted to promote an intimacy between the 

 library and the plough. The man of books sees many errors 

 which he supposes he could correct ; while the practical 

 cultivator laughs at the essays of the theorist. Much the 

 greater part of renting farmers are prevented, by their 

 anxiety to wind the bottom round the year, from engaging 

 in experiments ; and many think it nearly criminal to de\date 

 from the practice of their forefathers ; so that, at this day, it 

 remains for gentlemen of property and enlarged minds to 

 determine whether it is best to sow three bushels of wheat, 

 or one, on an acre of land. In other words, whether there 

 be not as much corn yearly wasted by superfluous, perhaps 



