Notices of New Books. 3851 



their appearance with exactitude, and to depict their portraits in all 

 the leathery blackness of their physiognomy ; then to give each a 

 name and record the whole in a book, — what should we think if the 

 world would call this Egyptian History ? 



" It is manifest that there is not an iota of History in either the one 

 or the other. For History is the record of the actions of men, their 

 relations to other men, the circumstances in which they acted, their 

 characters, the influence of their lives upon society, their connexion 

 with the times preceding and following their own, and other points of 

 interest, not one of w T hich could be gathered from a description of 

 their dead and preserved bodies, though ever so exact and minute. So, 

 that alone is worthy to be called Natural History, which investigates and 

 records the condition of living things — of things in a state of nature ; 

 if animals, of living animals : — which tells of their ' sayings and do- 

 ings,' their varied notes and utterances, songs and cries; their actions, 

 in ease and under the pressure of circumstances ; their affections and 

 passions, towards their young, towards each other, towards other ani- 

 mals, towards man ; their various arts and devices, to protect their 

 progeny, to procure food, to escape from their enemies, to defend 

 themselves from attack ; their ingenious resources for concealment ; 

 their stratagems to overcome their victims ; their modes of bringing 

 forth, of feeding, and of training their offspring; the relations of their 

 structure to their wants and habits; the countries in which they dwell; 

 their connexion with the inanimate world around them, mountain or 

 plain, forest or field, barren heath or bushy dell, open savanna or wild 

 hidden glen, river, lake, or sea : — this would be indeed Zoology, i.e., 

 the science of living creatures. And if we have their portraits, let us 

 have them drawn from the life, while the bright eyes are glancing, and 

 the flexible features express the emotion of the mind within, and the 

 hues, so often fleeting and evanescent, exist in their unchanged reality, 

 and the attitudes are full of the elegance and grace that free, wild na- 

 ture assumes." — Preface, p. v. 



To these observations we most cordially say Amen! They are after 

 our own heart ; they advocate that very system of observation which 

 we have ever advocated ; they go far to hold up Natural History in a 

 more attractive form than usual, — to place it in a better light than 

 usual ; they recall to our minds the labours of Gilbert White ; they 

 breathe the very essence of that spirit in which the idea of the ' Zoo- 

 logist' was conceived, and in which it has been our unceasing wish to 

 conduct it. Honour be to Mr. Gosse for his sentiments ; and honour 

 be to him for this promise of amending Natural History : honour be 



