INTKODUCTION 15 



of openings that the annotator's diffidence was seduced and 

 I let myself go. I am confident I was justified, and that 

 readers have the right to demur at the quality of the notes 

 or my qualifications for writing them, but not at the fact 

 of their appearance. Discussion and criticism were neces- 

 sary to the problems begotten of the text, portions of 

 which contain important data for the students of natural 

 history, animal psychology, and even natural philosophy. 

 Lastly, I have to thank the editors of the Spectator for 

 their generous and unfailing kindness to me. The facili- 

 ties they gave me for preparing the book saved me a great 

 deal of trouble and expense, and this special graciousness 

 towards one who does not share their point of view in 

 certain other fields of opinion is something to appreciate 

 and remember for always. 



II 



Part of the pleasure of these letters is in their freedom 

 from professionalism, from the grand air, from a dull 

 literary foppishness, and any advertising of an escape from 

 the ordinary. I was reading some old country letters 

 published about eighty years ago, and one of them began, 

 Cobbett-wise, " Let those rooks alone, boy !" real literary 

 music. Many of these letters are in this transparent 

 manner, plain tales of things seen, and no nonsense. 

 Having something definite and interesting to share with 

 others less fortunate, they tell it out and achieve style 

 without a thought of it, as the artist achieves personality 

 by losing it in the absorption of his subject " Lose that 

 the lost thou may'st receive," which is sound literary 

 criticism. 



But I mean something more than this. The evil of 

 professionalism includes a bureaucracy of knowledge, the 

 illiberal exclusivism of so much modern thought, which 

 resents any intrusion upon its private affairs, as the Board 

 of Agriculture resented any outside lover of England pro- 



