ON THE POPULARITY OP NATURAL HISTORY. 
121 
greatest mistakes are therefore often made by these vehicles; they give publicity 
to mysterious accounts and seeming wonders that are of no authority, and do not 
occupy, as they might do, that position between the scientific publication and the 
unlearned observer which would be of the utmost importance to the spread of a 
correct taste for Natural History. They-may indeed admit a statement as 
curious, but, being unable to give the explanation, they resemble an author I 
have met with, who, in his catalogue of birds found in a certain spot, mentions 
some Gulls seen flying occasionally about a pool, but remarks, to what tribe of 
that numerous family they belonged, he 64 was not prepared to say”! Till this 
be remedied, if the field of Natural History is to be enlarged , and its students 
increased , the writers on this subject who address the public through the press, 
especially in periodicals, are not to suppose their readers in general to be profi¬ 
cients, , but ■ learners. The-question then will be, is it expedient to address learn¬ 
ers?- and I -repeat it is so if we wish the boundaries of our favourite pursuit to 
be- extended ; and it follows that the-language and allusions we make use of 
should he- such -as even learners may comprehend and take an interest in, 
I have felt it necessary to enter largely upon this topic, because nothing runs 
more glibly over the tongue than the 44 popularity ” of Natural History—nobody 
disputes it—nobody analyzes the materials of which this cobweb 44 popularity ” is 
made, and then when we find ourselves laughed at for devotion to the study , and per¬ 
haps the lucubrations of ourselves or some of our friends not honoured with quite 
such a premium as falls to the lot of the successful novelist, it does seem a little 
queer to hear the eternal chorus of the popularity of Natural History, from indi¬ 
viduals who perhaps scarcely ever open a scientific work on the subject, and 
whom no inducement could persuade to walk half a dozen miles for any other 
purpose than to sit down and carouse for the rest of the day! But how can 
Natural History be popular as a study yet? It must be imbibed young, if much 
progress is to he made, and ought to have competent teachers, like any other 
branch of education. But there is still a prejudice against this in some quarters 
as unnecessary, and in most instances (the medical profession perhaps excepted), 
if the men of the present generation know anything about it they have taught 
themselves. When I went to school I recollect the only class-book from which 
there was the slightest chance of obtaining the rudest rudiments of Natural His¬ 
tory, was Turners Arts and Sciences , probably obsolete now, in which the 
whole tribe of heathen gods and goddesses were stowed like goods in a crowded 
vessel, in company with metals, mermaids, falling stars, thunder and lightning, 
Lions, and spouting Whales, and cuts of Nightingales and Cuckoos as like the 
birds they represented as - some I have seen- on old glazed tiles and painted win¬ 
dows, which might pass for any thing. No doubt things are improved now: at 
any rate hooks are not deficient, but multitudes still exist who have been 
