AND THE REV. R. CHURTON. 225 



P.S. Mr. Lewis has often seen the Caprimulgus\ and behold 

 he said " It was & foolish bird." Here is your rjOos (B\aiciKos 

 again ; and it is a curious coincidence of opinion with our 

 friend the Stagyrite, whose works certainly our friend the 

 Bank Director never read. The ground of this notion I leave 

 to your better discernment to account for. I will only pro- 

 pose one query. Does it appear foolish to English eyes, as 

 it did anciently to Grecian, because it hovers about, and if 

 put up, soon lights again, and does not wisely consult for its 

 own safety by distant flight? * 



LETTER XXIII. 



FROM GILBERT WHITE TO MR. CHURTON. 



Selborne, Nov. 15, 1792. 

 DEAR SIR, 



As your own account of the bad state of your health, written 

 to Dr. Chandler, gave us much concern, so in proportion 

 your late cheerful letter to Mrs. Chandler afforded us no 

 small satisfaction. I sit down now to invite you to spend 

 part of your Xtmass holidays with us. But as yr usual time 

 of vacation, when divided into two parts, will be little or 

 nothing, we hope you will be able to extend yr furlow. You 

 have of late years paid me a compliment for varying my 



rather to the qualities of the heart than those of the head. Judicent eriir- 

 diti\. For the rest, exclusive of the fabulous account of sucking goats and 

 drying up their milk, &c., the author seems to give in a few words some 

 very characteristic traits of the bird described. But here I ain the 

 rhetorician teaching Hannibal the art of war. 



* [It entirely depends upon the time of day when it is observed 

 stolid and stupid in the day time, bright and active in the evening, as 

 stated above by Aristotle. See Letter XXII. to Pennant and note 

 (Vol. I, p. 65). T. B.] 



t [Aubert and Wimmer translate the expression " und hat ein scheues 

 Wesen." A. N.] 



VOL. II. Q 



