INTRODUCTORY SKETCH.’ 
Ir would be hard to overestimate the influence of the 
“Natural History of Selborne” in promoting the study of 
Nature ; and when it is considered that there is perhaps noth- 
ing that yields so pure and simple a delight, or that tends so 
much to keep the mind fresh and young, as the pursuit of 
natural science, it will be seen that the author of this delight- 
ful book was a benefactor to his race of no secondary or unim- 
portant rank. Indeed, it is not putting Gilbert White on too 
high a pedestal to say that, among those who have done their 
best in the humbler and obscurer walks of life to which they 
have been called, few have left an influence more wide-spread 
and enduring than he has. No life could emphasize that truth 
_ better than his. Frank Buckland, the well-known writer and 
authority on natural history, in writing of Gilbert White 
says :— 
“White was a true student of all created things — lynx-eyed, 
quick to observe accurately, and patient to interpret the mean- 
ing of facts brought under his notice. ‘The same facts that 
_White saw and recorded are still going on around us at the 
present time. The birds come and go at the same dates as 
did their ancestors a century ago. ‘The rabbits, hedgehogs, 
rats, bats, snakes, mice, etc., still keep up their old, old cus- 
_ toms unaltered and unchanged. White is the teacher who has 
1 This Introductory Sketch has been compiled from the Introduction 
" to an edition of White’s Selborne, published by Blackie & Sons of London 
in their “ Home and School Library.” 
