Introduction xxx i x 



Nowadays we should say, "/ will run down to Lincolnshire 

 and look at it" : but Lincolnshire to White was further off for 

 all practical purposes than Moscoiv or Morocco to the modern 

 investigator. This steady picture of a calm and contemplative 

 rural life is worth a thousand times more than much minor 

 science. 



Finally, we have always to bear in mind the end which 

 thinkers of White's age proposed to themselves. In our own 

 day, the desire to " advance science " has been made on the whole 

 a foolish fetish. Almost all scientific education has aimed at 

 this end ; it has striven to produce, not ivhole and many-sided 

 men and women, but inventors, discoverers, producers of new 

 chemical compounds, investigators of new and petty peculiarities 

 in the economy of the greenfly that affects roses. All that is very 

 excellent in its way ; but it is not the sole, or even (let me be 

 frank) the main object of a scientific education. What the ivorld 

 needs is not so much advancers of science as a vast mass of well- 

 instructed citizens, who can judge of all subjects alike in their 

 proper place, and can assign to each its due relative importance. 

 I know few things more instructive in this way than to turn 

 from the " Natural History " to the " Antiquities of Selborne," 

 and see how far White differed in the width and universality 

 of his broader interests from the narrow and specialised man of 

 science of to-day. The truth is, the vast majority of men can 

 never do anything to "advance science" in any noteworthy 

 degree ; and the desire to "fake up" a petty name by pretending 

 to advance it lies at the root of much of our current pedantry. 

 But everybody can love and observe nature. Everybody can take 

 lessons from White in such love and observation. The aim we 

 should propose is to build ourselves up in the round ; to make 

 of ourselves full, evenly-balanced, broad-minded human natures. 

 We do not want to be lop-sided. As a preservative against one 

 prevalent form of lop-sidcdness in modern life, White's methods 

 and example are of incalculable value. Try to look out upon 



