Year: 1919
Type: book
Abstract: Mr. Barrett has in late years seen and studied strange phases of Nature in other lands in Egypt, in Sinai, in Palestine where one may still check his impressions by reference to the first book of Nature.And at the end of it he has come back, not to tell usof war, either in its romance or its realities, but to drop quietly into the old haunts and seclusions and give us in his first published words just the old hobby and the old home things.The one thing which all his old friends and admirers would have wished is that everyone who takes up this book could know the author of it as we do.It would have added much to their enjoyment and understanding of his work.He is a tireless, even a daring hunter, without the hunter's limitations in daring most only for the things that are good to kill and to eat.The author, though he has what the scientist is pleased to call "attainments," is in no sense a cabinet naturalist.His book is popular, which means that it is human.The actual anatomy of bird or beast appeals to him less than its habits, its activities, and, above all, its living rights, in Nature's wonderful scheme of things.The name of a thing the point where "scientific" knowledge so often begins and ends is of less importance to him than the thing itself.It is a book to read and keep for company's sake, in the same sense that a picture is so often aptly described as "good to live with."
Author: Charles Barrett
Language: English
Subfield: History and Philosophy of Science
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2493484774