LIFE OF A SCOTCH NATURALIST
OF
A SCOTCH NATURALIST
THOMAS EDWARD
PORTRAIT AND ILLUSTRATIONS BY GEORGE REID, R.S.A.
Fourth Edition
LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET
1877
[The right of translation is reserved.]
Printed by R. & R. Clark, Edinburgh.
PREFACE.
The history of the humblest human life is a tale ofmarvels. Dr. Johnson said that there was not a manin the street whose biography might not be madeinteresting, provided he could narrate something of hisexperiences of life, his trials, his difficulties, his successes,and his failures.
I use these words as an introduction to thefollowing biography of my “man in the street.”Yet Thomas Edward is not an ordinary man.Eighteen years since, I mentioned him in Self-Help,as one of the most extraordinary instances ofperseverance in the cause of science that had evercome under my notice.
Nor was he a man of any exalted position in society.He was a shoemaker then; he is a shoemaker still.For nearly thirty years he has fought the battle ofscientific poverty. He was one of those men wholived for science, not by science. His shyness preventedhim pushing himself forward; and when hehad done his work, he was almost forgotten.[vi]
How he pursued his love of Nature,—how hesatisfied his thirst for knowledge, in the midst of trials,difficulties, and troubles,—not the least of which wasthat of domestic poverty,—will be found related inthe following book. Indeed, it may be said of him,that he has endured as much hardship for the cause ofscience, as soldiers do in a prolonged campaign. Hespent most of his nights out of doors, amidst damp,and wet, and cold. Men thought him mad for enduringsuch risks. He himself says, “I have beena fool to Nature all my life.”
He always lamented his want of books. He hadto send his “findings” to other naturalists to benamed, and he often lost them. But books couldnot be had without money; and money was asscarce with him as books. He was thus preventedfrom taking rank among higher-class naturalists.He could only work in detail; he could not generalise.He had to be satisfied with the consolation thatMr. J. Gwyn Jeffreys once gav