WHITE OF SELBORNE ON SNAKES. 



but rather illustrative of them. For, 

 as St. Paul says, " All flesh is not 

 the same flesh; for there is one 

 kind of flesh of men, another flesh 

 of beasts, another of fishes, and 

 another of birds," and we might 

 add another of serpents, each having 

 natural laws peculiar to itself, and 

 illustrating the wonderfully diversi- 

 fied works of the Creator of all. 



The serpent, however much she is 

 hated, has been an object of inter- 

 est, wonder, or worship at all 

 times and among all nations. In 

 Genesis she is described as " more 

 subtile than any beast of the field," 

 and the highest of all authority 

 commands us to imitate her for her 

 wisdom, provided it is allied with 

 the harmlessness of the dove. 



WHITE OF SELBORNE ON SNARES.* 



WHITE, in his Natural History 

 of Selborne, page 126, edi- 

 tion 1833, says: "Monographers, 

 come from whence they may, have, 

 I think, fair pretence to challenge 

 some regard and approbation from 

 the lovers of natural history ; for, 

 as no man can alone investigate all 

 the works of nature, these partial 

 writers may, each in his depart- 

 ment, be more accurate in their dis- 

 coveries, and freer from errors, than 

 more general writers, and so by de- 

 grees may pave the way to a univer- 

 sal correct natural history." " Men 

 that undertake only one district are 

 much more likely to advance na- 

 tural knowledge than those that 

 grasp at more than they can pos- 

 sibly be acquainted with. Every 

 kingdom, every province, should 

 have its own monographer " (p. 

 128). " It has been my misfortune 

 never to have had any neighbours 

 whose studies have led them to- 

 ward the pursuit of natural know- 

 ledge ; so that, for want of a com- 

 panion to quicken my industry and 

 sharpen my attention, I have made 

 but slender progress in a kind of 

 information to which I have been 

 attached from my childhood " (p. 

 39). " It is no small undertaking 

 for a man, unsupported and alone, 

 to begin a natural history from his 

 own autopsia. Though there is 

 endless room for observation in the 



field of nature, which is boundless, 

 yet investigation (where a man en- 

 deavours to be sure of his facts) can 

 make but slow progress ; and all 

 that one could collect in many 

 years would go into a very narrow 

 compass " (p. 118). 



A state of ignorance in regard 

 to the serpent tribe cannot be said 

 to exist in America, although the 

 knowledge possessed by people is 

 of a casual and partial nature, more 

 or less recent and rusty, and dis- 

 connected from any theory or sys- 

 tem, which makes it all the more 

 reliable to a person who will gather 

 it up, like pieces of a puzzle lying 

 loosely around, and arrange it into 

 a whole. In the event of the pres- 

 ent papers finding their way back 

 to America, and being so brought 

 before the notice of the public as 

 to really interest it, I am satisfied 

 that more could be collected from, 

 intelligent people in or from country 

 places, than one would perhaps care 

 to be troubled with ; for to them a 

 story about snakes is always 

 interesting. f I am really astonish- 



* Dated January nth, 1873; printed 

 July igth and August ^3d. 



f Under the article " American Sci- 

 ence Convention on Snakes" it will bo 

 seen that a newspaper notice on the sub- 

 ject of snakes called forth, from different 

 parts of the United States, no less than 

 ninety-six answers,. 



