CHAPTER XI 



GILBERT WHITE AND OTHERS 



If it can be said that Newton's life was influenced 

 more by any one man than by another, that man was 

 unquestionably Gilbert White, of Selborne. We have 

 his word for it that he had the greatest admiration for 

 White from his very boyhood, and in his " Journal," of 

 June 26, 1844, he records the fact that " To-day is the 

 anniversary of the death of Gilbert White, 1793 " — a boy 

 of fifteen does not lightly take notice of an event of that 

 kind. To use a somewhat old-fashioned and, perhaps, 

 out-of-date expression, both were of " gentle birth," and 

 he often quoted and commented on Gilbert White's 

 expression in one of his letters to Robert Marsham, " I 

 was born and bred a gentleman and hope I may be 

 allowed to die such." 



The smallest detail connected with the life and 

 writings of Gilbert White always had the deepest interest 

 for Newton, and he never lost an opportunity of adding 

 to the meagre facts recorded. During many years before 

 its publication in 1877 he assisted in the preparation, and 

 read all the proofs, of the edition of " Selborne " edited 

 by Professor Thomas Bell, F.R.S. That edition con- 

 tained nearly a hundred letters of Gilbert White which 

 had never been published before, and was thus im- 

 measurably superior to previous editions, but Bell 

 had made a somewhat perfunctory use of the mass of 

 material lent him by White's descendants. Newton was 

 especially disappointed that so little information was 

 recorded of White's brothers, Thomas, Benjamin, and 



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