192 GILBERT WHITE AND OTHERS 



offered of the charm which invests it can be aeceptecj as 

 in itself satisfactory. If we grant what is partially true, 

 that it was the first book of its kind to appear in this 

 country, and therefore had no rivals to encounter before 

 its reputation was established, we find that alone in- 

 sufficient to account for the way in which it is still 

 welcomed by thousands of readers, to many of whom — 

 and this especially apphes to its American admirers — 

 scarcely a plant or an animal mentioned in it is familiar, 

 or even known but by name. Goldsmith's " Animated 

 Nature " was begun in 1769, two years after the com- 

 mencement of White's correspondence with Pennant 

 and in the very year in which White first wrote to Bar- 

 rington. That book appeared in 1774, when the corre- 

 spondence was all but concluded and the monographs 

 were ready for the Royal Society. One author could not 

 have been influenced by the other. Goldsmith's work 

 was one of the most profitable of his literary under- 

 takings, and was at once popular beyond anything of the 

 kind before published ; but no one reads it now, and, 

 what is more, no one could conscientiously edit it without 

 having to add notes that would expose the author to 

 ridicule on one point after another. He could only 

 translate and travesty Buffon, and the man who on so 

 many subjects " wrote like an angel " could not touch 

 the works of Nature without deforming them. Yet none 

 can deny there is a charm, an old-fashioned fragrance 

 even, in Goldsmith's " Animated Nature," the only work 

 of that age with which White's can be compared. But 

 taking the latter's " Selborne," of the hundreds of state- 

 ments therein recorded, the number which are un- 

 doubtedly mistaken may be counted almost on the 

 fingers of one hand. The gravest is perhaps that on the 

 formation of honeydew (Letter Ixiv. to Barrington) ; but 

 it was not until some years later that the nature of that 

 substance was discovered in this country by Curtis 

 (Trans. Linn. Soc, vi. 76-91), and was not made known 

 until nearly a twelvempnth after its discoverer's death ; 

 while we have editor after editor, many of them 



