The Lake County star. [volume] (Chase, Mich.) 1873-current, 1877-03-08
White, OF SelbOrne.
fScribner's Magazine. !

h Gilbert White, the father of English
Natural History, and the most charming
writer upon the subject which the Ian.
guage has produced, was born in 1920
and died in 1898. He was curate (Gc.
vicar, as has been said) of the parish .oi
lSelborne, in HampsHire. Here he lived
the'life of a scholar and of a country
parson.- Selborne was a somewhat Sc,
Guided spet, little visited by the. fashion
and fame of the eStime.s The naturalist
and poet had therefore all the more leis-
>ure to observe the arrivals of the birds
and to note thepeculiarities of vegetable,
animal, and even human life existing
In the little realm OF Selborne. White
was q great naturalist, but it is chiefly
on account of his delightful, almost un-
.equaled, gift of description that he is
read now, and will doubtless always be
read. ' He will describe the cackling
of fowls In a barn-yard in such h, way
that chickens become most novel and
wonderful creatures. In describing an
idiot boy he had known twenty years be-
fore, who was fond of honey, and was a
skillful bee catcher, he seems to give his
gentle prose almost buzzing or hum
ming sound. This boy, in the winter,
dozed away his time by the afreside in
his fathers house, but in the summer he
was alert and in quest of his game in the
fields and on sunny banks. White says :
"Honey bees, humble bees and wasps were
his prey wherever he found them he had
no apprehensions from their stings,
but would seize them nuolis nsaaaibls, and
at once disarm them of their weapons, and
suck their bodies for the sake of their
oney.bags. Sometimes he would fill
his bosom between his shirt and his skin
with number of these capitives; and
sometimes he would confne them in bot
ties. He was very Merops apiaster, or
bee-bird; and very injurious to men
that kept bees; for he would slide into
their bee-gardens and sitting down be-
fore the stools, would rap with his finger
on the hives, and so take the bees as they
came out. He has been known TO over
turn hives for the sake of honey, of
which he was passionately fond. When
metheglin was making he would linger
round the tubs and vessels, begging a
draught of what he called bee-wine. As
he ran about he used to make hum
ming noise with his lips, resembling the
buzziBg of bees. The lad was lean and
sallow, and of cadaverous complexion
and except in his favorite pursuit, in
which he was wonderfully adroit, dis
covered no manner of understanding"
The literary excellence of this is wonder
ful, yet White never appeared to wish to
be literary; in,some of his happiest pas
sages he seems to be only transcribing
fact in the plainest and simplest language.
He does not dilute his pictures with thin
reflections which the reader should be
allowed to make for himself. Thus
when he speaks of the coins of Marcus
Aurelius and the Empress Faustina,
found at the bottom of Wolmer Pond,
where they had been left by the Romans,
and which finally came into circulation
at Selborne, he says: "The owners at
first held their commodity at a high
price, but finding that they were not
likely to meet with dealers at such
rate, they soon lowered their terms and
sold the fairest as they could. The coins
that were rejected became current and
passed for farthings at the petty shops"
A modern essayist would not have lost
the chance to point the humorous and
poetical suggestions of the incident. But
White, being full of such facts, passes on
to the next. Gilbert White took life
time to make his Selborne." He has
given to it the calmness, the benevolence,
the content of his long life. u. 49,