Professor Bell's “Selborne”

Abstract

THE edition of this classic work for so many years expected from the hands of Prof. Bell, has at length appeared, and readers will regard it with much gratification and a little disappointment. The former feeling will arise from the large amount of new matter which it contains, and the latter from the conviction which cannot but force itself upon them that more was to be made of the whole than the editor seems to have been aware of. Yet Prof. Bell's long life—it is more than fifty years since he first won his spurs in the field of science—and his invaluable services in so many departments of zoology, render us very unwilling to say more than we are compelled in detraction of this, his latest labour, and the child of his old age. He writes now, as he always has written, pleasantly enough, but he fails to give us the notion that he has done the best he could with the materials placed at his disposal, and with his other unequalled opportunities. It is evident that his task grew upon him, and that a considerable portion must have been printed off before its extent was determined. This, indeed, is not an uncommon thing with young authors and editors; but Prof. Bell's literary experience, and the long time he is known to have had the present work in preparation, should have guarded him from an error of the kind. We might almost infer that when the memoir was written he had not mastered all the details of the deeply interesting correspondence which forms the bulk of his second volume, and certainly that he had not decided how many, and which, of the letters it contains should be given to the world. It is sufficient for us now to say that there is not one of them that could have been spared, for we must presently return to their consideration.

The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne, in the County of Southampton.

Rev. Gilbert White, formerly Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford. Edited by Thomas Bell, F.R.S., F.L.S., F.G.S., &c. Professor of Zoology in King's College, London. 8vo, 2 vols. (London: Van Voorst, 1877.)