38 GLAUCUS ; OR, 



aim and not his amusement, his would have been 

 one of the greatest names in the whole ranjrc of 

 British science." I question, nevertheless, wheth- 

 er he would not have lost more than he would 

 have gained by a different training. It might 

 have made him a more learned systematizer ; 

 but would it have quickened in him that "see- 

 ing eye " of the true soldier and sportsman, 

 which makes Montagu's descriptions indelible 

 word-pictures, instinct with life and truth ? 

 " There is no question," says Mr. E. Forbes, 

 after bewailing the vagueness of most naturalists, 

 " about the identity of any animal Montagu 

 described He was a forward-looking phi- 

 losopher ; he spoke of every creature as if one 

 exceeding like it, yet different from it, would 

 be washed up by the waves next tide. Con- 

 sequently his descriptions are permanent." Sci- 

 entific men will recognize in this the highest 

 praise which can be bestowed, because it attrib- 

 utes to him that highest faculty, — The Art of 

 Seeing: but the study and the book would not 

 have given that. It is God's gift, wheresoever 

 educated : but its true school-room is the camp 

 and the ocean, the prairie and the forest ; active 

 self-helping life, whicli can grapple with Nature 



