Introduction xxxix 



account of Cressi Hall ; but recollect, not without regret, that in June 

 1746 / was visiting for a week together at Spalding, without ever 

 being told that such a curiosity was just at hand" Murray and 

 Baedeker were then unknown. Nowadays we should say, " / will run 

 down to Lincolnshire and look at it " : but Lincolnshire to White was 

 further off for all practical -purposes than Moscow or Morocco to the 

 modern investigator. 'This steady picture of a calm and contem- 

 plative rural life is worth a thousand times more than much minor 

 science. 



Finally ', we have always to bear in mind the end which thinkers of 

 White's age proposed to themselves. In our own day, the desire to 

 " advance science " has been made on the whole a foolish fetish. 

 Almost all scientific education has aimed at this end ; it has striven to 

 produce, not whole and many-sided men and women, but inventors, 

 discoverers, producers of new chemical compounds, investigators of new 

 and petty peculiarities in the economy of the greenfly that affects roses. 

 All that is very excellent in its way ; but it is not the sole, or even (let 

 me be frank} the main object of a scientific education. What the world 

 needs is not so much advancers of science as a vast mass of well- 

 instructed citizens, who can judge of all subjects alike in their proper 

 place, and can assign to each its due relative importance. I know few 

 things more instructive in this way than to turn from the " Natural 

 History " to the " Antiquities of Selborne" and see how far White 

 differed in the width and universality of his broader interests from the 

 narrow and specialised man of science of to-day. The truth is, the vast 

 majority of men can never do anything to " advance science " in any 

 noteworthy degree ; and the desire to ''fake up" a petty name by pre- 

 tending to advance it lies at the root of much of our current pedantry. 

 But everybody can love and observe nature. Everybody can take 

 lessons from White in such love and observation. The aim we should 

 propose is to build ourselves up in the round ; to make of ourselves full, 

 evenly -balanced, broad-minded human natures. We do not want to be 

 lop-sided. As a preservative against one prevalent form of lop- 

 sidedness in modern life, White's methods and example are of incalcul- 

 able value. Try to look out upon Nature with the same frank, 

 unprejudiced, first-hand view, asking her questions, and letting her 



