1776 TITLE OF JOHN WHITE'S BOOK 311 



meteor. Brother Thomas by no means approves of your 

 title of 'Zoological Anecdotes'; he thinks the latter too 

 mean and unworthy a great book. He rather thinks that 

 you should say, *The Natural History of the quadrttpeds^ 

 birds, fishes and insects of Southern Spain! with &c. We 

 wish also that you would throw something savoury into 

 your title-page concerning migration ; for many readers pay 

 attention to that circumstance, without regarding any other 

 parts of Nat. Hist. Say what you can concerning vegetation ; 

 for the love of such knowledge increases. Even Bishops 

 (your Bishop in particular) in order to recommend them- 

 selves, study botany. Mr. Curtis says, that men from the 

 other end of the town call on him in their coaches to desire 

 private lectures for grown gentlemen. But your bookseller, 

 at last, will be your best adviser respecting a title page ; for 

 such men best understand the pulse of the publick. 



Pray write to Selborne not long hence. 



Jack should send me an account of the thermometer 

 at Manchester. Mr. Lever has custom at his shop; but 

 whether adequate to his boundless views, no one can guess. 

 He is furnishing the ivhole house with specimens ; still 

 " Some Demon whispers. Bubo,* have a taste." 



Brown, I think, is in gaol in St. George's fields; but 

 artists never work more steadily than when under confine- 

 ment. Forster has just received a letter from Linnseus, who 

 wants to publish a new mantissa of plants in England; 

 Brother Benjamin declines meddling. Forster says that 

 when you write to Linn, you should direct to him not as 

 professor at Upsal, but as academician \ since all such 

 letters go free, because the academy is of royal institution. 



Forster's new genera of Antarctic plants do not sell; so 



* The allusion here is puzzling. Why " Bubo " should have been sub- 

 stituted for "Visto" does not appear. Possibly Lever may have been 

 owl-like in appearance, or perhaps it was a misquotation from a momentary 

 lapse of memory. 



