GILBERT WHITE AND SELBORNE 83 



first writer to convey it by means of a persuasive 

 literary form. This latter he owes as much to the 

 accident of historical origin as to his genius, since the 

 age of specialization, with its exclusive priesthood and 

 oracles of jargon, had not yet possessed the field. The 

 admirable little monographs he wrote on his darling 

 " hirundines " are models both of accurate observation 

 and precise language, and the literary man, the naturalist 

 and the humanitarian might well join hands over his 

 grave in homage to the ancestor of their common 

 understanding, purposes and interests. The man who 

 was " touched with a secret delight " to " observe with 

 how much ardour and punctuality these poor little 

 birds (swallows) obeyed the strong impulse towards 

 migration " was a lover who acquired knowledge by 

 the spur of his affections, who grew more fond by the 

 increasing of his knowledge, and who fused his love and 

 his knowledge by the power and subtlety of an appro- 

 priate artistic method. 



White found out these secrets of life and expression 

 by a kind of natural force and amiability of personality 

 which give distinction, weight, and discernment to his 

 observations and an unforced balance and liveliness of 

 movement to his polished style. To put a writer's 

 lastingness down to his personality is rather begging 

 the question, but in a peculiar way White's book is 

 all the man and the whole man. No writer is less 

 self-conscious and individualist, or more objective in 

 the sense that his whole mind, heart and skill were 

 devoted to revealing something quite outside himself. 

 He seems to have had very little idea of his epistolary 

 virtues, and in one letter to Pennant he writes with 

 naive charm : 



On a retrospect, I observe that my long letter carries with it 

 a quaint and magisterial air that is very sententious, but ... I 

 hope you will pardon the didactic manner for the sake of the 

 information it may happen to contain. 



There was about as much self-importance in White 

 as there was light-headedness in Timothy, his tortoise, 

 and he is a standing example of the truth of the 



