The Natural History of Selborne 34.7 



of fish, under the genus of Cyprinus, or carp, and calls it Cyprinus 

 auratus. 



Some people exhibit this sort of fish in a very fanciful way; for 

 they cause a glass globe to be blown with a large hollow space within, 

 that does not communicate with it. In this cavity they put a bird 

 occasionally ; so that you may see a goldfinch or a linnet hopping as 

 it were in the midst of the water, and the fishes swimming in a circle 

 round it. The simple exhibition of the fishes is agreeable and 

 pleasant ; but in so complicated a way becomes whimsical and un- 

 natural, and liable to the objection due to him, 



" Qui variare cupit rem prodigialiter unam" 



I am, &c. 



