Robbery from Nature 1 9 



lives there is more of ease than toil, who in youth 

 were not trained to sport, and to whom taste, culture, 

 and perhaps the doctor also, say that the purest re- 

 creation of their idle moments awaits them out of 

 doors, in the open country. It is their custom to 

 steal away to the fields or the sea-beach, not at set 

 seasons, as when the may-fly is on the river, or when 

 autumnal leaves rival the pheasant's plumage in rich- 

 ness of tint, nor at set holidays, but at any time of the 

 year when circumstances admit and the sun offers a 

 pressing invitation. 



But the restless Englishman in his idlest moments 

 longs for an occupation. It is a physical impossibility 

 for him to dangle his legs over a grassy river-bank 

 and do nothing more important than drop pebbles 

 into the running stream. If he care neither for golf 

 nor any kindred pastime, and if he does not shoot, 

 angle, row, sketch, garden, or give himself to books, 

 the chances are greatly in favour of his seeking amuse- 

 ment in the study of natural history ; for this pursuit, 

 the increasing popularity of which is a healthy reac- 

 tion from the too feverish city life of our time, offers 

 a combination of attractions. By investing the open- 

 air ramble with a purpose it removes the uneasy 

 twitchings of conscience absolute idleness is apt to 

 engender in men habitually busy. There are few so 

 constituted as in a perfectly aimless stroll to derive 

 a full and quiet pleasure from a merely passive sub- 

 mission to the caresses of Nature, and who, when she 



C 2 



