BIOGRAPHY. 23 



It is illustrative of Waterton's character that when the 

 reviewers impugned his veracity, he troubled himself very- 

 little about them, saying that the creatures which he had 

 described would one day find their way to the Zoological 

 Gardens, and then that everybody would see that he had 

 but spoken the truth. So, when the first sloth arrived, 

 Waterton had quite a little triumph over his detractors. 

 Indeed, the probability was, that, after reading one of 

 these reviews, he w^ould invite the assailant to Walton 

 Hall, offer him the good old English hospitality of that 

 place, and settle the point of dispute in friendly controversy. 



But, little as he cared for such attacks, he was deeply 

 stung by the epithet ' eccentric ' which one writer applied 

 to him, and never could forget it. 



Yet, had he not been eccentric, lie could not have been 

 the Charles Waterton so long known and loved. It was 

 perhaps eccentric to have a strong religious faith, and act 

 up to it. It was eccentric, as Thackeray said, to " dine 

 on a crust, live as chastely as a hermit, and give his all to 

 the poor." It was eccentric to come into a large estate as 

 a young man and to have lived to extreme old age with- 

 out having wasted an hour or a shilling. It was eccentric 

 to give bountifully and never allow his name to appear in 

 a subscription-list. It was eccentric to be saturated with 

 the love of nature. It might be eccentric never to give 

 dinner-parties, preferring to keep an always open house 

 for his friends ; but it was a very agreeable kind of ec- 

 centricity. It was eccentric to be ever childlike, but never 

 childish. We might multiply instances of his eccentricity 

 to any extent, and may safely say that the world would be 

 much better than it is if such eccentricity were more 

 common. 



It formed one of the peculiar charms of his society, and 

 he was utterly unconscious of it. He thought himself the 



