SELBORNE 303 



no longer inhabited its ancient breeding -place 

 beneath the eaves of Selborne Church. 



Finally, after discussing these and various 

 other matters which once engaged his attention, 

 also the little book he gave to the world so long, 

 ago, there would still remain another subject to 

 be mentioned about which I should feel some- 

 what shy — namely, the marked difference in 

 manner, perhaps in feehng, between the old and 

 new writers on animal life and nature. The 

 subject would be strange to him. On going into 

 particulars, he would be surprised at the dis- 

 position, almost amounting to a passion, of the 

 modern mind to view life and nature in their 

 assthetic aspects. This new spirit would strike 

 him as something odd and exotic, as if the 

 writers had been first artists or landscape- 

 gardeners, who had, as naturalists, retained the 

 habit of looking for the picturesque. He would 

 further note that we moderns are more emotional 

 than the writers of the past, or, at all events, less 

 reticent. There is no doubt, he would say, that 

 our researches into the kingdom of nature 

 produce in us a wonderful pleasure, unlike in 

 character and perhaps superior to most others; 



