282 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



mutually attached friends. That, however, would have extended 

 this article to an inordinate length ; and here I shall leave 

 "Blessed Thomas More" with only one (but that a charming one) 

 reference to that illustrious martyr as a genuine lover of a great 

 variety of God's dumb creatures. It is from the pen of Erasmus 

 himself, and forms part of a long letter (written in Latin, of 

 course) to Ulrich von Hutten, a German noble, who had formed 

 a very high opinion of M ore's genius from reading his ' Epi- 

 grams' and 'Utopia,' and was anxious to learn something about 

 the personality of the author. Tiie following is the passage 

 pertinent to our subject (literal translation) : — 



" One of his great delights is to consider the forms, the habits, and 

 the instincts of different kinds of animals. There is hardly a species 

 of bird that he does not keep in his house, and rare animals, such as 

 monkeys, foxes, ferrets, weasels, and the like. If he meets with any- 

 thing foreign, or in any way remarkable, he eagerly buys it ; so that 

 his house is full of such things, and at every turn they attract the eye 

 of visitors, and his own pleasure is renewed whenever he sees others 

 pleased." 



We have here a charming idea of More, and his writings bear 

 ample testimony to the fidelity of the picture. 



"Natural History" in the Age of Erasmus. 

 The literature of this subject is ample enough, but it is more 

 entertaining than instructive, and I only make passing reference 

 to it for the purpose of illustrating, by way of contrast, the 

 scientific standpoint of Erasmus as a field-naturalist, and a 

 really great observer, investigator, and theoriser on the every-day 

 aspects and phenomena of animal and plant life. Erasmus was, 

 of course, thoroughly familiar with the ' De Anima ' of Aristotle, 

 the ' Historia Naturalis ' of Pliny, and, indeed, with probably all 

 extant writings of the ancients that dealt directly with natural 

 history, or indirectly with it in works of travel and geography. He 

 probably also knew Bartholomew's ' Liber de Propiietatibus,' &c. 

 (147 9), ' Hortus Sanitatis ' (1490), and a few other contemporary 

 works, mainly borrowed from Pliny ("As Pliny saith"), with a 

 vast amount of mediaeval myth, descriptions of rare monsters, 

 &c, added in all simple earnestness and unbounded credulity. 

 It was not in a Gallio spirit that " he cared for none of these 



