xvi PREFACE. 



good and praiseworthy in the good and great who have gone 

 before you ; for the paths to honour and fame are as varied 

 as they are inviting. Choose for yourselves, and in making 

 your choice, some may become great as naturalists, how I 

 wish that you might all become that! and, for my part, 

 allow me to say that I know of no other pursuit on earth, 

 either for a living or a pastime, from which as much real 

 pleasure, innocent delight, and unalloyed happiness, can be 

 drawn, as from the study of the works of the Almighty. 

 It is so ennobling, and elevating too. Neither do I know of 

 any other occupation that is, in one or other of its branches, 

 so easy of access to every one, as that of Nature." 



After telling his hearers that he was fond of 

 " beasties " from his earliest years, because they were 

 living things, Mr. Edward went on to say 



" In searching for the living things, my desire was not to 

 destroy for destruction's sake, but simply that I might learn 

 all I could concerning the beautiful and wonderful works of 

 Grod. This was hard, though pleasant work; and remember, 

 as I have told you before, I was uneducated, which you are 

 not ; or if you are, it must be your own fault. I was worse 

 off, too, in another respect, if worse can be. I was very poor, 

 very poor indeed. Neither had I any books, nor wherewithal 

 to get books. I had no one to teach me, nor to advise 

 me, nor to tell me a word of what I longed to know. I 

 was like a ship set adrift on the ocean without a rudder, in 

 fact without a crew; but still I panted for knowledge. 

 Yet, from the day when I got that terrible sore back from 

 my last day-school teacher, I had nothing but to teach my- 

 self, or to go untaught. 



" But some of you may say, ' How did you do it 1 ?' Well, 



