CHARLES WATERTON, ESQ. XXXvii 



those of Leyden, do not see tlieir error in 

 adhering to the old way of preparing specimens, 

 or, seeing it, do not try to improve it. Their 

 own knowledge of nature, and their innate 

 powers of perception, ought to give them 

 strong hints that the usual way of mounting 

 specimens in zoology is unsound, and ought to 

 be abandoned; and that some other plan must 

 absolutely be adopted, ere a single sample can 

 be produced that would stand the test of scien- 

 tific examination. The bird with fresh -looking 

 feathers on a shrunk and shapeless pinion ; the 

 quadruped whose nose is dwindled into half its 

 size, and the serpent wrong at every fold, had 

 far better be exhibited as mere skins, than be 

 presented to public view bereft of every feature 

 they possessed in life. As skins, at all events, 

 we could look upon them with composure, and 

 leave the room without disappointment. 



The change of religion in Holland threw 

 its magnificent churches sadly into the back- 

 ground, and there they have remained ever 

 since. Nothing can exceed the nudity and 

 gloom of the great church in Haerlem, where 

 the famous organ, that paragon of melody, is 

 said to surpass every other organ in the known 

 b 3 



