134 LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. 



provements in the technical art of stuffing grew out of this combined 

 familiarity with the habits and organisation of animals, and thus the 

 wide range of his studies advanced natural science from its highest 

 down to its lowest branch. The minds of great men are richer than 

 their books. For every observation which Waterton had printed, he 

 had made at least a hundred. In all his pryings into animal ways, 

 his accuracy was extreme. To this hour he has not been convicted 

 of a single error, and while numerous pretentious works of contem- 

 porary naturalists, who were celebrated in their day, have been swept 

 away by the tide of increasing knowledge, his modest little volumes 

 remain permanent landmarks. Their intrinsic value has proved 

 greater than that of their ambitious competitors, in much the same 

 proportion that their parade of learning was less. Waterton did not 

 even care to give the Latin names of the creatures he described, 

 aware that a repulsive nomenclature would scare away the public, 

 and be of little service to science. When these qualifications are 

 summed up, there will be no difficulty in detecting the source of the 

 light which sparkles on the page of Waterton. He did not recast 

 the information picked up from books. He did not even retail the 

 hearsay collected on the spot. He was a man of acute intellect, 

 well prepared by previous training, who related the original observa- 

 tions of his own understanding eyes. His remarks were written at 

 the time in the forest, and have the freshness and the truth of reality. 

 Hence his list of the fauna of Guiana never savours of a catalogue, 

 and never palls. Instead of our yawning over diffuse pedantic 

 verbiage, he cannot speak of any creature without our wishing that 

 his description was longer ; nor stop in his travels without leaving us 

 eager to continue our journey through the wilds. His "Essays in 

 Natural History" may take their place by the side of White's 

 " Natural History of Selbourne," and there is nothing on tropical 

 natural history which deserves to be named with the " Wanderings." 

 The information of Waterton is set off by a lively quaintness of 

 style, which is pleasing because it is unaffected, and reflects the inbred 

 originality of the man. If he has indulged largely in classical quota- 

 tions, they are at least always apt, and it must not be forgotten that 

 they were a fashion at the time when his mind was formed. If, on 

 some subjects, he has expressed opinions which may appear hasty 



