AN EMBRYO NATURALIST. 7 



recognised as common property), but did not militate 

 against the employment of boys from outside to pelt 

 the fruit with stones, by the bribe of a commission on 

 the profits. " Quod facit per alium, facit per se " was 

 a motto clearly unregarded by the youthful moralists. 



Very early in the boy's life the bent of his mind 

 manifested itself ; and he himself could never recollect 

 the time when he was not constantly poking, and 

 probing, and prying, here, there, and everywhere, in 

 the endeavour to discover some of the manifold secrets 

 of Nature, and to learn the ways and doings of the 

 multitudinous living creatures that garden and river 

 and woodland afforded. 



In this he was much encouraged by his father, 

 who, on Sunday afternoons, would lend a microscope 

 and a pocket magnifying-glass to the children, and 

 join eagerly with them in examining the numerous 

 wonders which a few minutes' search in the garden 

 would always turn up. Pets, of course, were numerous 

 and varied. Bats, toads, lizards, snakes, blindworms, 

 hedgehogs, newts, dormice, insects even of various 

 kinds, all were kept in turn. And so the boy laid 

 the foundation of that store of knowledge which 

 afterwards served the man so well. He learned to 

 love animals of all kinds, and to study with the 

 deepest interest and minutest care every detail of their 

 life-history. And at the same time he was uncon- 

 sciously teaching himself how to observe, and learning 

 the lessons, myriad and diverse, which Nature is always 

 ready to impart to those who strive to search out her 

 secrets. 



