CHAP. vi. SHY AND FRIENDLESS. 01 



everything. As we have already said, he knew next 

 to nothing of books. He did not possess a single 

 work on Natural History. He did not know the 

 names of the birds and animals that he caught. For 

 many years after he had begun his researches, his 

 knowledge of natural objects was obtained by chance. 

 He knew little of the nature and habits of the crea- 

 tures that he went to seek ; he scarcely knew where 

 or how to find them. Yet his very absence of know- 

 ledge proved a source of inexhaustible pleasure to him. 

 All that he learnt of the form, habits, and charac- 

 teristics of birds and animals, was obtained by his 

 own personal observation. His knowledge had been 

 gathered and accumulated by himself. It was his 

 own. 



It was a misfortune to Edward that, after he had 

 attained manhood, he was so shy and friendless. He 

 was as solitary as Wordsworth's Wanderer. He had 

 no friend of any sort to direct him in his studies ; 

 none even to lend him books, from which he might 

 have obtained some assistance. He associated very 

 little with his fellow-workers. Shoemakers were 

 a very drunken lot. Edward, on the contrary, 

 was sober and thoughtful. His fellow shoemakers 

 could not understand him. They thought him an 

 odd, wandering, unsettled creature. Why should he 

 not, as they did, enjoy himself at the public house ? 

 Instead of doing this, Edward plodded homewards so 

 soon as his day's work was over. 



