PREFACE. 



MESSRS. MACMILLAN having requested me to edit White's 

 " Selborne," I accepted the task, feeling assured that the hand- 

 some Edition of the works of the founder and pioneer of 

 English Practical Natural History now presented to the public 

 would be the means of attracting many of the present genera- 

 tion both young and old to the observation of the living 

 works of the great Creator, and would help to counteract the 

 growth of doubt, infidelity, and atheism, which though regarded 

 at their real worth by a reasoning public must become bitter 

 weeds in future, of no assistance to science, and sure promoters 

 of a dangerous materialism. 



Gilbert White's writings are coloured throughout with that 

 right tone of feeling which recognises the work of a great 

 Creator in everything, both large and small. Gilbert White 

 may, in fact, be said to have planted the acorn which, forty 

 years after his death, grew into a great oak in the form of the 

 Bridgewater Treatises l on the " IJoforr, iSHisbom, an!) oobittss of 

 dob, as maitifestta in ilje Creation;." 



1 I beg to recommend the readers of White to peruse these Bridgewater 

 Treatises, especially Kirby on the History, Habits and Instinct of Animals ; 

 Dr. Roget on Animal and Vegetable Physiology ; Sir Charles Bell on the 

 Hand, and the Rev. Dr. Buckknd on Geology and Mineralogy. 



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