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164
Glaucus; Or, The Wonders of the Shore
·
Charles Kingsley
128
“The
habits”
(and
he
might
well
have
added,
the
marvellous
beauty)
“of
animals
will
never
be
thoroughly
known
till
they
are
observed
in
detail.
Nor
is
it
sufficient
to
mark
them
with
attention
now
and
then;
they
must
be
closely
watched,
their
various
actions
carefully
noted,
their
behaviour
under
different
circumstances,
and
especially
those
movements
which
seem
to
us
mere
vagaries,
undirected
by
any
suggestible
motive
or
cause,
well
examined.
A
rich
fruit
of
result,
often
new
and
curious
and
unexpected,
will,
I
am
sure,
reward
anyone
who
studies
living
animals
in
this
way.
The
most
interesting
parts,
by
far,
of
published
Natural
History
are
those
minute,
but
graphic
particulars,
which
have
been
gathered
up
by
an
attentive
watching
of
individual
animals.”
Mr.
Gosse’s
own
books,
certainly,
give
proof
enough
of
this.
We
need
only
direct
the
reader
to
his
exquisitely
humorous
account
of
the
ways
and
works
of
a
captive
soldier-crab,
{190}
to
show
them
how
much
there
is
to
be
seen,
and
how
full
Nature
is
also
of
that
ludicrous
element
of
which
we
spoke
above.
And,
indeed,
it
is
in
this
form
of
Natural
History:
not
in
mere
classification,
and
the
finding
out
of
means,
and
quarrellings
as
to
the
first
discovery
of
that
beetle
or
this
buttercup,—
too
common,
alas!
among
mere
closet-collectors,—
“endless
genealogies,”
to
apply
St.
Paul’s
words
by
no
means
irreverently
or
fancifully,
“which
do
but
gender
strife;”—
not
in
these
pedantries
is
that
moral
training
to
be
found,
for
which
we
have
been
lauding
the
study
of
Natural
History:
but
in
healthful
walks
and
voyages
out
of
doors,
and
in
careful
and
patient
watching
of
the
living
animals
and
plants
at
home,
with
an
observation
sharpened
by
practice,
and
a
temper
calmed
by
the
continual
practice
of
the
naturalist’s
first
virtues—
patience
and
perseverance.
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