SHORT NOTICES OF BOOKS. 
229 
bis favourites, the ants, bees and wasps ; but the chapters on plants are also in- 
teresting. There are nearly a hundred figures — mostly good, but two or three 
(pp. 177, 1S1, 209) as'bad as any we ever saw. The book would be the better 
for an index. 
SHORT NOTICES OF BOOKS. 
We are anxious to give as much prominence as our limited space will permit 
to notices of books likely to be useful to Selbornians, and we would urge upon 
our readers to promote the circulation of works likely to promote the love and 
knowledge of natural objects by every means in their power. This can be done 
through lending or reference libraries of various kinds, especially by presenting 
suitable books to free libraries, in which Natural History is often very inadequately 
represented ; also by the selection of such volumes as prizes for schools or gift- 
books for children. 
Literature of this class has assumed considerable proportions, and we shall be 
compelled — save in very exceptional cases — to confine our notices to books sent 
us for review. We would ask the publishers in every case to state the price of the 
book sent ; this will always be quoted in the notice, which will thus be rendered 
more useful to our readers than would otherwise be the case. 
The charming little green-covered volume of selections from the pomis of our 
President, which Canon Ainger has edited under the title of Tennyson for the 
Young (Macmillan, is.), will, we hope, find its way into the hands of every one 
of our readers ; those who do not require it for themselves will do well to 
make some one else happy by the gift of a copy. The selection is excellent — 
almost as good as could be, but not quite, for the Morte if Arthur is omitted. We 
trust that in the succeeding issues, of which there will be many, this serious 
omission will be rectified. We could, if required, spare one of the dialect poems 
and one or two others — Minnie and Winnie , for instance ; but the Morte d’ Arthur 
is a necessity. Canon Ainger’s preface is excellent, but some of the notes strike 
us as superfluous — at any rate for young Selbornians, who may be credited with 
knowing that a coot is “a water-bird, common on English streams,” and that 
“ hern ” means “ a heron.” 
Mr. Churton Collins, in his Illustrations of Tennyson (Chatto and Windus, 
•6s.) has produced a book which most admirers of the Laureate will read, but few 
will like. Mr. Collins has read much, and in the course of his reading has noted 
a large number of undoubted parallels between passages in Lord Tennyson’s 
poems and others in classical as well as little-known authors. He also finds other 
parallels where, we fancy, most would deny their existence. Mr. Collins is not 
as well acquainted with Lord Tennyson’s writings as might be expected ; thus, 
speaking of Dora and its connection with Miss Mitford’s story, he says, “ the 
poet’s indebtedness to the novel (!) has not been indicated ” ; but Canon Ainger 
tells us in one of his notes to the little volume just noticed, that “ when this poem 
was first published, in 1842, Mr. Tennyson informed his readers that it was based 
upon ” Dora Cressuiell. 
Studies in Evolution and Biology , by Alice Bodington. (London : Elliot 
Stock). The object of this book, as we gather from the prefatory address, is to vin- 
dicate the right of those who are not practical workers in the field of science to 
write upon scientific subjects.. It would be as reasonable, we are told, to restrict 
the writing of history to those who have taken part in the events described, as to 
demand scientific achievement before we allow the claim of an author to be heard. 
But are the cases exactly parallel ? Warriors and statesmen make history ; scien- 
tific men are not expected to make the laws of nature, which they have but to 
record ; and just as we expect of the historian an acquaintance with original 
documents, it seems not unreasonable to make a like demand of writers who 
undertake our instruction in this other department. The facts of nature are the 
original documents from which we have to draw. The need of such a training as 
