IN THE COUNTRY. 7 



shall we find that size and weight ought to have no 

 place in our estimation of the great or the little in 

 Nature : for they appear to have no place in the mind 

 of the Author of Nature. The same skill and care are 

 employed in the formation and adaptation of the minut- 

 est animal or plant as in that of the largest ; and the 

 same law that govems the formation of a rain-drop, in- 

 fluences not merely that of our own world, but extends 

 throughout the immeasurable regions of space. In 

 Nature everything displays the same evidence of great- 

 ness of design, sufficient, when duly appreciated, to fill 

 the largest intellect to overflowing, and to make it sen- 

 sible that so far from having a capacity " equal to the 

 majesty " of what it contemplates, its utmost stretchings 

 are insufficient to comprehend the fulness of a single 

 natural law. 



In contrast to the inventors of fanciful systems, how 

 gladly do we turn to such a writer as Gilbert White, 

 the well-known author of " The Natural History of 

 Selborne." Within the bounds of a single country parish 

 he found ample materials for one of the most delightful 

 and instructive books of Natm*al History ever written. 

 It does not require to be located in a peculiarly favour- 

 ed district to discover sufficient to arrest the attention 

 of the observant naturalist, or even to add something to 

 the general stock of knowledge. The naturalist is more 

 independent of circumstances than most men. Give him 

 fields and hedges, the barren moor, or the quarry, 

 from each and all he will collect a store of useful and 

 entertaining facts. No part of the country is so abso- 

 lutely barren that it will not afford employment to the 



