THE WONDERS OF THE SHOEE. 201 



therefore, none feel aggrieved, if, as it may cliance, 

 oj)ening these pages, they find their books omitted. 



First and foremost, certainly, come Mr. Gosse's 

 books. There is a playful and genial spirit in them, 

 a brilliant power of word-painting combined with 

 deep and earnest religions feeling, which makes them 

 as morally valuable as they are intellectually inte- 

 resting. Since W]iite's " History of Selborne," few 

 or no writers on N"atural History, save Mr. Gosse, 

 Mr. G. H. Lewes, and poor Mr. E. Forbes, have had 

 the power of bringing out the human side of science, 

 and giving to seemingly dry disquisitions and animals 

 of the lowest type, by little touches of pathos and 

 humour, that Kving and personal interest, to bestow 

 which is generally the special function of the poet : 

 not that Watertou and Jesse are not excellent in this 

 respect, and authors who should be in every boy's 

 library : but they are rather anecdotists than syste- 

 matic or scientific inquirers ; while Mr. Gosse, in his 

 " [N'aturalist on the Shores of Devon," his " Tour in 

 Jamaica," his " Tenby," and his " Canadian Natu- 

 ralist," has done for those three places what White 



