NATURAL SCIENCE.* WITH A COMPARISON BETWEEN THE LESSONS OF THE COUNTRY AND THE TOWN. THE author of the Natural History of Selborne was a clergyman of the Church of England, a lover and careful observer of Nature; who employed his leisure hours in researches connected with his native parish of Selborne, South Hampton county, England. Although Mr. White died in 1793, a late British journal says, that his book, in company with those of Bewick and Montagu, has had much influence in promoting the taste for the study of Ornithology in that country. It is written with simplicity and elegance, and shows a mind warmed by its favorite pursuits. In the biographical sketch, prefixed to the last edition, we are told, that being of an unambitious temper, and strongly attached to the charms of rural scenery, he early fixed his residence in his native village, where he spent the greater part of his life in literary occupations, and especially the study of Nature. This he followed with patient assiduity, and a mind ever open to the lessons of piety and benevolence, which such a study is so well calculated to afford. Thus his days passed tranquil and serene, with scarcely any other vicissitudes than those of the seasons, till they closed at a mature age.' We gather from the inscription on his monument, in the chancel of the Parish Church, that he was a faithful pastor; dearly loved by his parishioners and family; kind to the poor; and that he died at the advanced age of seventy-seven years. The other volume, the title of which accompanies this article, is one of a series of reports of scientific surveys, made under the auspices of the legislature of Massachusetts, from the year 1830 to the present time. In the publication before us, the portion of most general interest is upon the 'Birds of Massachusetts;' and is executed by the Rev. WILLIAM B. O. PEABODY, of Springfield, in that state. The accounts which Mr. Peabody has given of the birds of his state are necessarily incomplete, and are intended to be supplementary to those of other ornithologists. But they are marked by chasteness and beauty; and show industry, and above all, a The Natural History of Selborne, by the late Rev. GILBERT WHITE, A. M., Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford. With additions by Sir WILLIAM JARDINE. Philadelphia: CAREY AND LEA. Reports of the Fishes, Reptiles, and Birds of Massachusetts. Published agreably to an order of the Legislature, by the Commissioners on the Zoological and Botanical Survey of the State. love of this pleasing branch of science, worthy of imitation, and which we rejoice to believe is spreading. Without making any analysis of either of these works, we avail ourselves of the fact that both these contributions to Natural Science have been furnished by country clergymen, to make some remarks on the opportunities and the duty in the country of becoming wise. The COUNTRY, in distinction from TOWN, is praised for many things. The invalid praises it for its pure air; the merchant and professional man praise it for its quiet; the victim of artificial life praises it for its simple pleasures; the ruined speculator turns to it, that he may fulfil the universal law, and earn his bread by the sweat of his brow. But there is error mixed with truth here. Who does not know many a man of noble character in the country, upon whom the breezes that blow there, wake a spirit within, which feels pent within its perpetual hills, and who pants for a wider sphere of action? To whom the green earth, is an 'unweeded garden,' and the music of forests and birds, tame and lifeless? 'He sees a form you cannot see; he hears a voice you cannot hear.' The city haunts him by night and by day. And there are flashing upon him visions of usefulness in its narrow streets, which if he cannot realize, and there are sounding for him calls of duty in its Babel din, which if he cannot answer, his soul will faint and die. Then there are the libraries of town; its trophies of art; its music; its paintings; its statues. There are higher forms of intellectual life in town; the demand for genius and learning, and the supply. As 'iron sharpeneth iron, so man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.' Society, the great sharpener of mind, is ever whetting in her armory the keenest weapons, for her battles and tournaments. Then there are the noble charities of town; its hospitals for the sick; its houses of industry for the poor; of reformation for the bad; its asylums for the insane, the blind, the widow and orphan. And under the pressure of stronger motives, where men are crowded together, there is begotten sterner resolve, intenser action, more heroic self-denial, martyr-like endurance, and holier faith, than in the less exacting lot of country life. Therefore, when the country is praised, let it be recollected that the lights in the picture suppose shadows. There can be better things than pure air, green fields, tranquillity, and naturalness. Country people, too, are praised; and very much for the same qualities as the country. They breathe a pure air, and they are healthy. They have good food, and work, and they are strong. They have little money, and they are prudent. They are moral, for they do not fall into temptations, which do not beset them. They are simple, for they do not indulge in pleasures, which they cannot get. Now there is an important sense in which these statements are true. But is there not in them as much satire also as truth? It was said of a man who was proud of keeping a good horse, that he always appropriated to himself the merit of his beast. If praise come from these things, should it not be shared with the ox and the ass? What would be thought of any administration at Washington, which should claim a man's vote, because New York and New Orleans are at the mouths of the Hudson and the Mississippi, and Lowell is at the confluence of the Concord and Merrimac? Are men to be praised for circumstances, over which they have, by no possibility, control? Did they make the pure air and green fields? And does not the same skin which is bronzed by the country sun, bleach in the city shade? Do not the bones, and the sinews, which strengthen and toughen in wielding the axe, and driving the plough, grow flaccid and puny, when chained to the counter, and caged in the office? Ay, does not the same human heart throb in the one place, which throbs in the other? Do habits of expense, luxury, and folly, and corruption, grow from without or within? Why, the weeds in the fields do not grow unsown; though it may be that the farmer cannot tell whence the seed comes. Set down in the plainest NewEngland village the seductions, the rivalries, the wealth of great cities, (to say nothing of the beggary to pick up the crumbs, the corruption to pander to the passions, and the crimes to find shelter and opportunities, which follow in their train,) and how long will it be before that village will emulate in iniquity great Babylon itself? We read of Jeshurun, that he waxed fat and kicked." It is a truth which has not yet died out. If pure air, then; healthful occupations; simple pleasures; leisure, and absence of temptations, be good, they are good only as opportunities. They are good as they stimulate men to improve them; by their help to become wiser and better; as they use them to set them forward on an endless journey of increasing light, virtue, and happiness; as through them we strive to gain juster views of life, and more faithfully to fulfil its duties. But as means of escape from toil; as refuges for idleness; as stalls to fatten in, grow sleek, lazy, stupid, and selfish, the pleasant pastures of country life are for cattle, not men. And if women must make green banks of flowers couches for sickly sentiment, ending in nothing salutary to others and themselves, the sooner they quit them, and exchange bland zephyrs for rougher winds, which brace the soul, the better for them. It has been well said of Dr. Johnson, that he made shipwreck of his happiness; and it was little consolation, that he wrecked his bark on beds of pearl and rocks of coral. A condition of comfort, leisure, retirement, may cost men too much. The body may flourish at the expense of the soul. What then are the opportunities in the country of becoming wise? They consist in superior opportunities, in many (not in all) re |