292 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



charm with years. I used to read it without knowing the great pleasure 

 I found in it ; but as I grow older I begin to detect some of the simple 

 expedients of this natural magic. Open the book where you will, it takes 

 you out of doors. In simplicity of taste and natural refinement it reminds 



one of Walton, and in tenderness of Cowper The book has also 



the delightfulness of absolute leisure. Mr. White seems never to have had 

 any harder work to do than to study the habits of his feathered fellow- 

 creatures. His volume is a journal of Adam in Paradise. The same 

 combination of simplicity and refinement, the same humility and absence 

 of ostentation and self-consciousness, which constituted the great charm of 

 White's book, were equally conspicuous in his family correspondence, and 

 the every-day habits of his life. It was clear from the correspondence that 

 White was a most attached relation and affectionate friend, always ready to do 

 everything in his power for all that had claims upon him. There had recently 

 been some controversy as to the best memorial that could be devised for 

 Gilbert White. He agreed with those who thought that the best memorial 

 of the man was to be found in his work, and that nothing more was needed 

 to remind the world of him. In compliance with the prevailing fashion, which 

 was carried too far, it had been suggested that the centenary celebration 

 should be the occasion of raising some memorial; but surely Gilbert White 

 might have written with Horace, * Exegi monumentum sere perennius.' 

 His book would be his memorial to the end of time. Some statue or bust 

 of White had been proposed, but he was a man who had never sat for his 

 picture, of whose lineaments the present generation had no knowledge, 

 and of whose figure it could only be asserted that it was a little below the 

 ordinary height. As an alternative, it had been proposed that the memorial 

 should take the form of something useful for the people of the village. That 

 would not have the character of a personal memorial, and might soon cease 

 to be associated with the present celebration ; but, at any rate, that would be 

 better, and Gilbert White himself would certainly have said so. Although 

 on some points people at the present day might not agree with White, the 

 difference did not interfere with the enjoyment of the book. His shrewdness 

 of discernment was a most valuable gift, which he possessed in its most 

 signal degree, and his love of God's creatures and of every branch of 

 Natural History, to which he contributed so much that was both useful and 

 interesting, was very remarkably displayed in his writing. He had love for 

 all God's creatures, but, perhaps, especially for birds. By this love, and 

 by one particular chapter in which, while confessing that he did not pretend 

 to understand everything they said, he described with great charm the 

 variety of their voices and notes, and what they signified, he reminded one 

 of two great men. The one was mythical perhaps, aud of remote antiquity-— 

 the Greek, Melampus. Melampus rescued and brought up some young 

 serpents whose parents his servants had inconsiderately destroyed. One 



