PREFATORY NOTICE. IX 



first of these would not have accomplished the 

 object which I had in view; and the second would 

 have defeated that object. Mere panegyric does 

 not put any body in the way of knowing what it 

 lauds ; and as for writing on Natural History, the 

 quantity of that is already out of all measure com- 

 pared with the observation. There is not an apart- 

 ment in the densest part of the British metropolis, 

 in which it would not be possible to " grow" a 

 naturalist, who should utterly confound the sharpest 

 eyed and clearest headed man who ever looked at 

 real nature, and reflected on what he saw. That 

 is merely a fashion, however ; and, like all fashions, 

 it affords no pleasure, except when it is so worn 

 as to attract public notice. Now, I have no wish 

 to set up nature as a rival to the tailor or the mil- 

 liner ; and, therefore, I should certainly not wil- 

 lingly do any thing tending to make Natural His- 

 tory a matter of mere show. 



A man who observes nature, is not to be sup- 

 posed to collect an audience, every time that he 

 looks abroad upon the earth or upward to the sky, 

 and though he be ever so zealous a member of any 

 of the Societies which have for their object the ad- 

 vancement of his favourite study, it is but rarely that 

 he can have any thing worth communicating even 



