IV INTRODUCTION. . 
: 
beauty,in color or form, and microscopic objects were shown 
because of their marvellous sculpture. The recently published 
works of Bolles, Burroughs, Torrey, Abbott, Mrs. Miller and 
others, and early in the century Thoreau, are in the direct line’ 
of this spirit, which should never have waned. From the time 
of White’s Natural History of Selborne up to within thirty 
years, a very large number of people were finding instruction 
and pleasure in the simple charms of animated nature. 
Hogarth’s letter to Ellis typifies this spirit: 
“As for your pretty little seed-cups, or vases, they are a 
sweet confirmation of the pleasure Nature seems to take in 
superadding an elegance of form to most of her works, wherever 
you find them. How poor and bungling are all the imitations 
of art! When I have the pleasure of seeing you next we will 
sit down — nay, kneel down if you will—and admire these 
things.” 
The realization of the idea that species were artificial and 
not natural, that they had all come about by a process of varia- 
tion and natural selection and were not struck off like coins 
from a die, deadened for a time the interest in species making 
and collecting. What had been for the outdoor naturalist a 
simple pastime for leisure hours, was now turned into unremit- 
ting and sustained work, and few were able to command the 
time and enthusiasm for this task. Even the appliances for 
research were beyond his handling, and the redundant 
nomenclature was a serious task to his memory. He could 
no longer bring the results of his dallyings with birds and 
insects before the societies where formerly he had held his 
audience entranced, and so he retired discomforted and gave 
up in despair. 
The private collections of shells, insects, and minerals so 
common forty years ago are rarely seen to-day. A distinguished 
old-time naturalist of Liverpool in speaking of this change 
testifies that: “Private collections are failing in this city and 
y 
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