Testimonial to the Editor. 7461 



" The reason for my tating this course was threefold : in the first 

 place, I have little taste for Testimonials, having often, as I believe, 

 seen them given to the undeserving ; in the second place, I never 

 coveted for myself anything beyond the approbation of those who 

 purchase my publications, and who, in the very fact of such purchase 

 and approbation, abundantly repay any exertions of mine ; and in the 

 third place, I could not help feeling that in singling me out from a 

 host of fellow-labourers in the same walks of Science, you placed me 

 in an invidious and therefore undesirable position : in botanical, orni- 

 thological and entomological journalism, how much has been accom- 

 plished by others ! how many have been labouring with zeal and 

 success fully equal to my own ! In accepting this Testimonial at 

 your hands, I cannot escape the conviction that I am the cause of 

 injustice to others; injustice which, though they are too high- 

 minded to resent, I cannot defend or palliate on the plea of its being 

 on my part entirely unintentional. 



"Then, again, as I became aware of your fixed determination, as a 

 Committee, to persevere, and as I was from time to time, by more or 

 less direct means, made cognizant of your proceedings, T could not 

 help feeling that the absence of many a familiar and friendly name 

 from the list was in itself a silent rebuke, a demonstration of con- 

 scientious disapproval, although only perceptible to him who could 

 appreciate the cause. 



" But, turning to the other and brighter side of the picture, the 

 very circumstances which seemed to wound, carried with them their 

 own cure. Exactly in proportion as so many of my familiar friends 

 held aloof; exactly in proportion as this mark of esteem originated 

 with and has been carried out by gentlemen who knew me only as 

 author and journalist, from gentlemen whom I have never visited 

 and who have never visited me ; so is this Testimonial immeasurably 

 more valuable than it would have been had the design emanated 

 from my nearest and dearest friends, from men whose partiality 

 might blind their judgment, and who would be too glad to embrace 

 any opportunity of doing me a kindness. This munificent present 

 and this gratifying Address stand on a very different footing ; and I 

 accept them, most gratefully, as tributes to supposed merit, as 

 acknowledgments of supposed services in the cause of Natural 

 History. 



" You do not explain, or even aKude to, an act of considerate 

 kindness that has been peculiarly gratifying to uie ; I mean your 



