OF SELBOBNJE, 
537 
at Thorney in tlie Isle of Elj_, to settle an executorship, 
and dispose of live stock; there I lost nine oxen by their 
eating yew_, as mentioned in my book/ I hope you will 
write not long hence. With the truest respect and esteem 
I remain. 
Your most humble servant, 
Gil. White. 
The dark butterfly which you saw was the pajnlio urticce : 
it is often more early than the yellow papilio rhamni. At 
this moment the Barometer stands somewhat below 28 in. 
5 tens ! the rain this day has been very great from the 
S.E. 
LETTER III. 
TO ROBERT MARSH AM, ESQUIRE. 
Selborne, Feb. 25tli, 1791. 
T was elegantly remarked on our common 
friend, and my quondam neighbour Doctor 
Stephen Hales, by one who has written his 
character in Latin, that — scientiam philo- 
sophicam usibus humanis famulari jussit.'*' 
The observation was just, and the assertion no inconsider- 
able compliment : for undoubtedly speculative enquiries can 
bear no competition with practical ones, where the latter 
profess never to lose sight of utility. 
^ See Letter V. on the Antiquities of Selbome, p. 420. — Ed. 
This line was written by Dr. John Burton, and will be found in 
his " Opuscula Miscellanea Metrico-Prosaica'' (1771) p. 55. Dr 
Burton has himself been eulogized as " a man whose hberality of senti- 
ment always induced him to pay public respect to those whom he es- 
teemed deserving of it." See the "Gentleman's Magazine," April, 1780, 
p. 166.— Ed. 
