ts 
256 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
‘SIR, 
WN my Magazine of this monthT fee 
Jt with pleaiure that you folicit commu- 
nications on a fubject that has long been 
uppermo# in my thoughts—the promo- 
tion of knowledge by the powerful combi- 
ation of extenfive focicties. What great 
mifchief, I have obferved of late years, 
men can do in large bodies, naturally 
leads me to confider what effeétual fer- 
vices they might accomplifh, if united 
in overcoming the difficulties of fcience ; 
and it is not quite fix months patt fince I 
began a line to you, propofing an expedi- 
ticus method of getting, in about twelve 
months or lefs, over all the obftacles that 
lay in the way of acquiring a knowledge 
of our ownornithology. We fee, after all 
the labours of Pennant, and others, that 
fo common a tribe as the gulls are but ill 
defined ; but if one man cut of every vil- 
lage on our coafts would undertake to 
communicate all he knews, or could learn 
with certainty, of them, and direé that 
communication to a fixed point, (we will 
fay, in London) where a committee fhould 
fit monthly to infpeét papers, and feleét 
the new particulars by this means ac- 
quired, we fhould fhortly be in pofleion 
of nearly all_ that was necefiary to be 
known ; and my idea was, that, to avoid 
confufion, the managers of the bufinefs 
fhould give an invitation to every one, 
(members or not members of. this exten- 
five affociation,) to communicate all they 
know perfonally relative to one bird ata 
time, or at any rate, one {pecies of birds, 
fending up their papers monthly by the 
cheapefi conveyance, and, whea conveni- 
ent, adding f{pecimens of the whole, or 
part, in proof of their affertions. Ina 
fhort time I fhould think, by this means, 
the London Committee would be able to 
feie&t from their correfpondenis a prodi- 
gious number of ufeful members, perhaps 
one to every four or five villages in Eng- 
land, who fhould be folicited to affociate 
for their mutual improvement in this 
branch of fcience, until it was exhaufed, 
and then proceed to fome other, after pub- 
lifhing all their difcoveries for the benefit 
of the whole. | 
My realon for propofng this method 
was, that iftco much was undertaken at a 
time, nothing would be well done; and 
we know that human thought is never fo 
profiiably expended as when corifined to 
one point. There are enough of men of 
talents in the United Kingdoms to form 
exteniive focieties for the perfection of 
knowledge in every branch; many would 
4 
Improvement of Ornithology. Poggio: 
KOE. 5, 
enrol themfelves with five or fix, others 
confine themfelves to one only ; and by 
inviting people out of the pale to give 
their mites, a great body of ae 
would be collected from the indolent and 
referved, by no means to be overlooked 5 
for every man’s experience furnifhes him 
with many obfervations that he knows 
would be exceedingly ufeful to others, 
if he could tell where to offer them. . 
Faéts force themfelves frequently on 
men of very little general knowledge, re- 
lative to fome particular fubjeét, as\I 
know by my own feelings; and the notes 
moft readers make on the margins of their 
bocks, could they be collected on any 
work, would greatly enhance the value of 
a fecond edition. . 
But if we are to expeét any rapid pro 
grefs to be made in the undertaking, we 
muft carefully avoid the errors of thofe 
generals, who, when fent to inquire into 
the belt mode of defending a country from 
her foes, er how to fecure a particular 
eftuary, neglect to confult the lower order 
of men, whofe bufinefs occafions them to 
be cenitantly occupied about the fpot, 
and only-call on the men of rank and con- 
fequence for their opinion. 
Science mult not, therefore, defpife the 
humble information of the unlearned or 
the peor, but by every means encourage 
them to come forward and add their facts 
to the agoregate mafs.= So fhall fhe re- 
ceive free-will offerings in abundance,: 
and the affiftance of the more enlightened 
to arrange them ; light fhall come out of 
darknefs, and new hemifpheres of know- 
ledge froma chaotic region of crude and 
indigetted compilations. 
Lam, Sir, your’s, &ce > Gay. 
eS 
To the Edijor of the Monthly Magazines 
SIR, 
PON accidentally looking the other 
day into the Fourth Number of a 
wok calling itfelf a ** Review,” and 
publifhed at Edinburgh, I obferved that 
in the critique on Shepherd’s Life of 
Poggio Bracciolini, the author of that 
work is blamed for neglecting to give 
fome fpecimens of Poggio’s Italian com- 
pofiticas t If any fuch fpecimens exift, 
they muft be great curiofities ; yet. Mr. 
Shepherd will find it difficult to account 
in a fatisfactory manner for his intirely 
omitting them. Burif, on the contrary, 
no fuch compofitions are extant, the critic 
bears rather hard upon Mr. Shepherd in > 
finding fault with him for not producing 
a uoneniity. I am inciined to doubt the 
exiftence 
