cHaP. xiv.} Hdward’s Enthusiasm. 261 
ward by cheering the proposal of the orator; but it was 
words—mere words; for Edward got neither a book, nor 
even the leaf of a hook, from any of his local admirers. 
How different from this cold counsel was the enthusiasm 
of Edward when speaking of his favorite science! In an ar- 
ticle which appeared in the WVaturalist on the rayed echin- 
odermata of Banffshire, after regretting the small amount 
of observation and research which had been made along the 
shores of the Moray Firth, he said: “It is a great pity that 
the Moray Firth was never dredged by naturalists, as I am 
led to believe it never was, on a scale worthy of its waters. 
If such were done, and done as it should be, I am quite 
sure, from what I know, that many a valuable rarity, and, I 
have no doubt, many new species, would be procured, and 
better got than those already known. If I were but pos- 
sessed of half the means that some are, it should not long 
be so. Wind and weather permitting, I should have it 
dredged from the one end to the other, over and over again. 
Alas that Nature, that fair and comely damsel, whom I su- 
premely admire and love so well, should have called me into 
existence at the very moment when want and starvation 
stood hand-in-hand, ready to stamp the unconscious heir of 
immortality with their accursed brands! Money, it is said, 
is the root of all evil; but tell me, ye who know, what the 
want of it is!” 
We have already said that Edward, because of his want 
of books on natural history, obtained the principal knowl- 
‘edge of the objects which he discovered from gentlemen 
at a distance. But even.this was not accomplished without 
difficulty. It. was not always a pleasant task, and some- 
times it was rather expensive—expensive at least for a poor 
man. He occasionally encountered disagreeable rebuffs. 
Some complained that they could not read his writing, and 
that what he said was unintelligible. Another hinderance 
was, that when he sent a number of new specimens to nat- 
uralists at a distance, they were often kept, and thanks only 
