NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 17 



when this is removed the song recommences, is new and 

 bold ; I wish you could discover some good grounds for 

 this suspicion. 



I was glad you were pleased with my specimen of the 

 caprimulgus, or fern-owl ; you were, I find, acquainted 

 with the bird before. 



When we meet I shall be glad to have some conversa- 

 tion with you concerning the proposal you make of my 

 drawing up an account of the animals in this neighbour- 

 hood. Your partiality towards my small abilities persuades 

 you, I fear, that I am able to do more than is in my power : 

 for 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 endeavours 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. 



[The Collection of Taylor White Esq r is often men- 

 tioned as curious in birds, etc. : can't I be introduced 

 when in town, and see this Museum of my name- 

 sake's ?] 



Some extracts from your ingenious " Investigations of 

 the Difference between the Present Temperature of the 

 Air in Italy," &c., have fallen in my way ; and gave me 

 great satisfaction : they have removed the objections that 

 always arose in my mind whenever I came to the passages 

 which you quote. Surely the judicious Virgil, when writing 

 a didactic poem for the region of Italy, could never think 

 of describing freezing rivers, unless such severity of weather 

 pretty frequently occurred. 



[I return M r - Forster's long laboured Defence ; but have 

 too much compassion for his unhappy circumstances to 

 say much. I have only to observe, that he totally mistakes 

 my meaning with respect to his being expected to have 

 added Ray's synonyms of plants ; I objected to his having 

 put wrong english names to plants : and in the next place 

 when I complained that he employed one of his sons to 



VOL. II. C 



