New-York tribune., 1895-12-10
BOOKS ABOUT NATURE.
WHITE OF sELBoRNE AND SOME OF HIS
SUCCESSORS.

NATTEAL, HISTORY OF 2s Sss1, ANR RSs 3s
With the Text and New Letters Of the Buckland
Edition Introduction by John Burroughs. Illus
tavo Pp. xxii, 2oS vi 2s1 d. Appleton & Co
ARD JEFFERIEs; Selected by H. S H. WAY way.
len. Octave. PIP. vii III London ana New-fork'
Longmans. Green d Co.
THE COMPLETE WORKS OF JOHN BUR
ROUGHS. New Riverside Edition. in Nine Vol; l;
umes Octave. With Portraits Frontispieces ana
Decorative Title Pages. Boston and New-York:
Houghton Mifsin & Co.
YDYI.LIsTs OF THE COUNTRYSIDE. Being r., SIX
have Apostrophized the Joys of the open Air
BY George II. Eliwanger. Dodd Mead co.
There has been a revival lately in the literature
OF nature, new writers having appeared IN posi-
tive abundance Mrs. Wrights delightful BIRD
craft" and Mrs Dana's erudite but sympathetic
papers on wild flowers have been accompanied
by many productions from other hands when
have seemed hardly less practised. All these new
writer's seem to be genuine lovers OF nature ana
their number. combined with their enthusiasm
has amounted to veritable phenomenon. the
publishers have remembered most effectively
moreover, the tested work OF long familiar men,
II Is not more than year since we had occasion
70 welcome a new and valuable collected edition
OF Thoreau: and now we have the writings OF
Gilbert White Of Richard Jefferes and OF Mr.
John Burroughs reprinted with luxury or make
up that is of itself significant tribute Here
are engaging invitations for the reader TO pause
in corners Of his library that have been, perhaps
neglected. They are corners that look out upon
clover fields and laughing brooks. or forest depths
and sunny gardens. upon such scenes as touch
what is best in man and set his heart a-danclng
with the dafodils." There IS many sermon
IN these things and Gilbert White no doubt,
knew this quite as well as Shakespeare did; but
when he came to write The Natural History OF
Seiborne'' he left the sermon out. Within the
paees Of that book he is naturalist pure and
simple an adorer of nature and one Of her In
itiates He does not care to be anything more.
White showed an almost naive seriousness In
the ardor with which he threw himself into the
nhenomena of his famous parish and he loved his
birds and flowers solely FOR themselves. He and
his most distinguished followers have one essen
tial gift in common. passion for their subject
hut how many of them keep that passion un-
Touched by imaginative intellectual surmises,
rhapsodies which have nothing TO do with nat
ure? Even Thoreau, who In some respects is
Whites superior often fell beneath the latters
standard of relevance. OF complete and self
effacing absorption In the divine inspiration.
Who can forget Lowells friendly indictment of
the Concord hermit? When he CThoreaW let's
nature speak through his lips he is inimitable.
When he preaches-one longs to be somewhere
else So said Of our kindest and keenest
critics Of probably the most instructive writer on
nature whom English literature possesses And
q ,s Justly said. But It is not even remotely
necessary in the case Of this quiet English par
son. who had not one-tenth Of his American fol-
lowers poetic divinaton. White had, on the
whole, no more metaphysics than you could
,flA limit IF a H.
verted casque You get in his vivid pages moth
ing more nor less than the smell of the virgin
earth the brushing OF the honeysuckle across
your face as in Arnold's "Balder Dead; You
get in short nature and natures charm.
Mr.. Burroughs indicates this very expressively
when he SAYS in his introduction that Whites
book diffuses a sort Of rural England atmosphere
through the mind" It Is Just this that THE
Natural History Of Selborne" preserves, not
poets England. or a literary mans England, but
rural England" the rich, immobile England
which the poet do little to adorn, and with
which the literary man can have nothing to DO
whatever We are not sure than an artist has
much to do there. either. at least in close COM
panionship with White. If there is any art in
the great naturalists pictures, II Is OF the art
less kind. and while there is much tact implied
IN Mr.. Johnson's accompaniment to the ed
Photographic realism of the illustrations is quite
In accord with the spirit of the text. But they
are undoubtedly true to the scenes they represent,
and readers of the new edition will often thank
the Illustrator for his introduction of some in
teresting object like the great yew In Selborne
churchyard Whites own house The Wakes
objects which make Seborne itself more con-
crete without coming between the place ana
Whites presentment OF its universal aspects.
For there is after all. in spite of the absence
OF philosophy from his pages. good deal OF the
universal in Gilbert Whites book. good deal of
the everlasting truth which means the lowell
ness OF nature. whether In Selborne or the An
tipodes 1t is true that county historians Will
always owe him special debt, that his local
veracities will never fade or cease to be Of i'm
porAnce; but II you ask a true lover of this un-
ambitious writer what the History has done
for him he will tell you that, while it has not
made him love Seborne less. 1t has made him
love nature more. We are loath to put down the
two handsome volumes in which the source OF
such a gift as this has been republished. The
type Is 10 clear the paper is so pleasant TO the
touch, the weight of each volume is so nicely
adapted to the hand, and one turns page after
page with exactly that quiet sense of ever new
and ever old endeared delight which comes
through a window looking on the English coun-
tryside-the rocks cawing in a neighboring copse.
the little village nesting sleepiy amid the trees,
trees so green that sometimes they seem to hoyer
on The edge of black. and then again so green
that they seem vivid with the Haunting bravery
of spring.
Gilbert White moves he does because
he brings one into immediate contact with
things The difference between him and Richard
Jefferies is that. as We are reminded by the
title OF Mr. Waylen's book Of selections, the
later naturalist brings one into contact with
thoughts He is a naturalist. indeed, and one
Of the worthiest who have followed in the foot
steps of the Selborne master; but the individual
quality Of the man is clearly shown by such
an extract as the following: 'In the punches