THE SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT IN ENGLAND. 



287 



talent, did not retire into the depths of his own con- 

 sciousness, or surround himself with the artificial at- 

 mosphere of erudition. The result of such a process 

 can be abundantly traced in other countries and other 

 literatures. In England the isolation from society and 

 the solitariness of genius threw him into the arms of 

 Nature, and she has in many instances, in science, in 

 poetry, and in art, rewarded and refreshed him by a 

 novel inspiration she has lifted her veil to his loving 

 eye and revealed to him one of her secrets. The in- 

 dividualism of English science has been tempered by 

 its naturalism. A type of this peculiar form of the 

 naturalist was Gilbert White, the natural historian of 

 Selborne. 1 



1 A long list might be given of 

 these retired nature-loving souls, 

 among whom Charles Darwin will 

 always rank as the greatest and 

 most conspicuous. I give here a 

 few names in addition to those 

 mentioned in the text. 



John Gough of Kendal (1757- 

 1825) might, according to John 

 Dalton (see Ihis Life by Henry, pp. 

 9 and 10), "be deemed a prodigy 

 in scientific attainments. . . . De- 

 prived of sight in infancy by the 

 smallpox, . . . possessing great 

 powers of mind, he bent them 

 chiefly to the study of the physical 

 and mechanical sciences. It was he 

 who first set the example of keeping 

 a meteorological journal at Kendal ; 

 ... he knew by the touch, taste, 

 and smell almost every plant within 

 twenty miles ; he could reason with 

 astonishing perspicuity on the con- 

 struction of the eye, the nature of 

 light and colours, and of optic 

 glasses," &c., &c. For about eight 

 years Dalton and he were intimately 

 acquainted. 



George Edwards (1694-1773) of 

 Stratford, Essex, was the author of 

 the ' History of Birds,' which he 

 published between 1743 and 1764 

 in six volumes. He had journeyed 

 through France and other countries, 

 and gave engravings of six hundred 

 subjects not before delineated by 

 naturalists. 



Still more remarkable was Thomas 

 Edward (1814-86), the shoemaker 

 of Banff, who, having been turned 

 out of three schools for his zoolo- 

 gical propensities, without friends, 

 without a single book on natural 

 history, not knowing the names of 

 the creatures he found, gained a 

 knowledge unique in its freshness 

 and accuracy. At the University 

 of Aberdeen, where he exhibited 

 his collections, he was told by the 

 professors that he came "several 

 centuries too soon," as they had 

 then no chair of Natural History. 

 His life has been written by Smiles, 

 1876. 



Edward Forbes (1815 - 54) of 

 Douglas, Isle of Man, a born lover 



