APPENDIX Marginalia from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's copy of "White's Selborne," here printed for the first time, with the assent of Mr. Ernest Hartley Coleridge. The figures in brackets refer to the pages of this present edition. THE WORKS IN NATURAL HISTORY OF THE LATE Vol. I. p. 63 [58].-But with regard to their migration, what difficulties attend that supposition! That such feeble bad fliers (who the summer long never flit but from hedge to hedge) should be able to traverse vast seas and continents in order to enjoy milder seasons amidst the regions of Africa! Note.—Surely from Dover to Calais, and from Gibraltar (or even Toulon) to the coast of Barbary, cannot be called a traverse of vast seas. Vol. I. p. 168 [142].-Bullfinches, when fed on hempseed, often become wholly black. Note.-I saw a canary bird at Blumenbach's in Göttingen, which the Professor had changed to a bright black by the same food. Vol. I. p. 194 [161].—Virgil, as a familiar occurrence, by way of simile, describes a dove haunting the cavern of a rock in such engaging numbers, that I cannot refrain from quoting the passage; and John Dryden has rendered it so happily in our language, that without farther excuse I shall add his translation also: "Qualis speluncâ subitò commota Columba, Cui domus, et dulces latebroso in pumice nidi, Radit iter liquidum, celeres neque commovet alas." "As when a dove her rocky hold forsakes, Rous'd, in a fright her sounding wings she shakes ; To smoother flight, and shoots upon her wings." Note.-Curiosa felicitas, indeed a very odd way of translating a passage happily, except the four last words, and it wants five only of having as many faults as words, and many of them gross and glaring faults.-S. T. C. (Of course, I leave the "in" "with " "and" "she" "her" "a" and "the" out of the reckoning.) Vol. I. p. 239 [200].-Let me hear from your own observation whether skylarks do not dust. I think they do; and if they do whether they wash also. Note. Skylarks dust, but not wash. Vol. I. p. 292 [239].—Thus is instinct in animals, taken the least out of its way, an undistinguishing, limited faculty; and blind to every circumstance that does not immediately respect self-preservation, or lead at once to the propagation or support of their species. Note. This is an inadequate explanation. I would rather say, that instinct is the wisdom of the species, not of the individual ; but that let any circumstance occur regularly through many generations that then its every-time-felt inconvenience would by little and little act through the blind sensations on the organic frame of the animals, till at length they were born wise in that respect, and by the same process do they lose their not innate but connate wisdom : thus hens hatched in an artificial oven, as in Egypt, in three or four generations (the same process having been repeated in each) lose the instinct of brooding. I trust that this Note will not be considered as lessening the value of this sweet delightful book.— S. T. Coleridge, July 7, 1810, Keswick. Vol. I. p. 326 [263].-The remark that I shall make on these cobweb-like appearances, called gossamer, is, that, strange and superstitious as the notions about them were formerly, nobody in these days doubts but that they are the real production of small spiders, which swarm in the fields in fine weather in autumn, and have a power of shooting out webs from their tails so as to render themselves buoyant and lighter than air. Note.--Permit me to observe, as a certain yet hitherto unnoticed etymology of this word, that it is "God's Dame's Hair," and in Monkish Latin (where I found it) called Fila Mariæ, Capilla Matris Dei. Thus Gossip-i.e., God's Sib. Vol. I. p. 332 [267].—It would be matter of some curiosity, could one meet with an intelligent person among them, to inquire whether, in their jargon, they still retain any Greek words: the Greek radicals will appear in hand, foot, head, water, earth, &c. It is possible, that amidst their cant and corrupted dialect many mutilated remains of their native language might still be discovered. Note. This has been done by a learned German (Grellmann), who has made it evident that they are the remains of an expelled nation from between Persia and Hindostan. Vol. I. p. 333 [267].-Gypsies are called in French, Bohémiens; in Italian and modern Greek, Zingani. Note. The Zingani in Calibria and Apulia are not gypsies, but Christian Greeks with a very strange religion. Vol. I. p. 358 [289]. Thus far it is plain that the deprivation. of masculine vigour puts a stop to the growth of those parts or appendages that are looked upon as its insignia. |