28 THE SUBJECT PROPOSED. 



extracts are not numerous, and as they may perhaps 

 prove interesting, I shall be glad to transmit them to 

 you in the words of their respective authors. It has 

 sometimes been in my power to verify those state- 

 ments by my own observations, and occasionally, 

 although very rarely, to add something to the know- 

 ledge they convey ; but my great object will be to 

 point out how the remarks of the Poet are borne out 

 by the discoveries of modern science. 



If these letters induce you to examine the facts for 

 yourself, and to fill up those blanks which I shall 

 occEisionally indicate, I shall rejoice at having been 

 the humble instrument of " a consummation" so 

 " devoutly to be wished." Should the important 

 avocation in which we are both engaged permit us 

 to enter together on the natural history of the quadru- 

 peds, the birds, or the plants which Shakspeare has 

 dignified by his magic touch, it would be delightful 

 to reciprocate with each other the information we 

 might respectively obtain, and communicate our ob- 

 servations on a subject of common interest to both. 

 But I must own that " the wish is father to that 

 thought," for, situated as I am, it is scarcely pos- 

 sible for me to take a fair proportion of the exer- 

 tion necessary for such an object. You, however, 

 are so differently circumstanced, that you may hope 

 to effect that, which I am able only to desire. Of 



