MEMOIR.

THERE are few, perhaps, who have so extensively and so pleasantly occupied the mind of contemporaries and of posterity, and yet have left such scanty materials for a biography of corresponding interest, as the estimable and accomplished author of the Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne.'

Born in a remote and, at that time, unknown village, to which his fascinating pen has since given fame, educated to a profession the tendency of which is to encourage rather than to repress that love of retirement from the busy world which was his choice, alike from natural inclination and from the contingent circumstances of his life, modest in his self-estimation, temperate and unambitious in his wishes, and withal endowed with a classical and cultivated taste and a love of nature as pure as it was intense-possessed, too, of a competency sufficient for all the needful comforts of an elegant retirement, it is scarcely matter of surprise that Gilbert White should, on the termination of his career at the University, have sought at once the retreat with which his earliest recollections were associated, and where he might in quiet indulge those pursuits the cultivation of which could involve none of the changes and adventures to which biography ordinarily owes its interest and its charm.

That he was born in an obscure spot in Hampshire, that he received and profited by the customary education of a gentleman and clergyman, that he passed the

greater part of his life in the retirement of his native village (the uniformity of his habits varied only by occasional visits to his friends), that he published an account of the natural history and antiquities of the place of his residence, and died there at a good old age these are the meagre outlines of a life which no lights and shadows can elaborate into such a picture as would satisfy the curiosity of the numbers who have dwelt upon his writings with delight, and who naturally long for some characteristic traits of his mind and habits. The Editor of the present impression of his works therefore, in endeavouring to furnish some memorials of his author, feels that he lies under a disadvantage which no diligence can obviate and no ingenuity can conceal, while the Annals of the Parish' in which it is his own pleasant lot to reside afford but scanty materials to aid him in his facts.

But if the tranquil flow of a contemplative life, unbroken by startling incident and unvaried by travel, fail to interest the feelings or to satisfy the cravings of a sensational and restless age, it may yet be useful to show by such an example that the love of nature and its pure and holy study may not only be consistent with, but may itself be the cause of a true and enduring happiness which the excitement and turmoil of debated theories, and the gratification of personal ambition, even in pursuits important and praiseworthy in themselves, have no power to confer.

Nor is it a necessary concomitant of such a life of quiet, that it should be one of indolence and seclusion, or inconsistent with the most cheerful association with the world of intellect and learning. It appears, on the contrary, that, wholly independent of his assumption of

the character of author, Gilbert White had acquired and kept up a close and friendly communion with men who had distinguished themselves in the cultivation of literature and science, and that not only in his correspondence, but in personal intercourse, such an association formed a considerable element in the happiness of his life. In the whole tenour of his well-known work, in the few existing records of his own life, and no less in his private letters, will be found the same unambitious and gentle tone, combined, however, with a degree of decision and solid judgment which effectually prove that intercourse with the great world is not required to elevate or strengthen the character.

The following passages from a very brief unpublished memoir of him by his nephew, the Rev. Edmund White, who, for the last nine years of his uncle's life, was vicar of the contiguous parish of Newton Valence, and who probably knew him more intimately than any other person, will be read with interest, as affording a close insight into his character, attested by one who, from his boyhood, was the object of his constant care and affection.

“His kind, admonitory letters to me when I first went to the university, which were continued during my residence in college, made the first impression on my mind of his kindness of heart, and of his pure Christian and religious principles, and prepared me to enjoy with more than common satisfaction the good fortune which befell me upon my quitting college, of residing upon my living, which is the adjoining parish to Selborne. This circumstance I have always regarded as a most fortunate event in my life, as it led me to the closest intimacy and friendship with a man whose conversation was always enter

taining and instructive. Added to a naturally cheerful manner (though formal at the first introduction), he possessed a most insinuating address, and left in the minds of those with whom he had conversed a pleasing recollection of him; for he had the peculiar faculty of attaching to him all of every age, particularly young people, who listened with delight to his instructive tales; nor did they ever forget his expressive eye and his look of complacency.

"If I were called upon to say in what point he particularly excelled, I think I should say it was his mode of addressing his poor neighbours; his kind philanthropy and his charitable wishes towards them ever made him intimate with their wants, and his humane inquiries always made them feel that he was their true friend."

Such is the simple testimony of one who knew and loved him; and it has been amply confirmed by many now passed away, but who, in years gone by, gave assurance of their own personal experience of the beneficence of his heart and conduct. The relative above quoted adds, "To those who were intimately acquainted with him, a pleasing vein of humour showed itself frequently in conversation." This, too, is conspicuous in many anecdotes of his life, as well as in his private letters.

Gilbert White was born at Selborne on the 18th of July, 1720. He was the eldest son of John White, of that place, and of Anne, daughter of the Rev. Thomas Holt, rector of Streatham, in the county of Surrey. That his descent, both on his father's and mother's side, from a highly respectable ancestry was not a matter of indifference to him is evinced by the following detail, which was copied from his own autograph, formerly in