His Beginnings 



21 



learn from the meanest things in Creation, In 

 short it would appear that, whilst any one of us 

 might become a Naturalist in the realm of flowers 

 or birds or even insects, it is only he who is 

 ordained by God himself who is qualified to 

 minister in that rejected Kingdom of creeping 

 things. 



We talk glibly of Recording Angels, never 

 pausing for a moment to contemplate the amount 

 of clerical work that is involved, if such a Hansard 

 has to be kept going for every day in every life. 

 But if anyone is curious to see what such a record 

 actually looks like, he should have a peep at 

 Brown's amazing folios. For therein are minuted 

 to the last detail the observations of a long 

 lifetime on the loves, the hates, the hopes, the 

 fears, the every move of his weird reptile wards. 



* What a waste of effort/ you may say, * on 

 such degraded emotions ! " But do not forget 

 that he was recording such sentient life as breathed 

 upon this world for millions of years before it 

 was as we now know it. These were the low 

 vertebrate passions that once held majestic 

 undisputed sway, scornful of the lesser spineless 

 things that had preceded them, oblivious of the 

 mighty fall that was in store for them. Let us 

 not be too sure that there is no similar purgatory 



