Excerpt from The Natural History of Birds Subsequently, when, in the course Of events which are not worth mentioning, I came pretty largely and freely into contact with men Of learning and talent, some of whom have graven their monuments and left us, and others still remain, discharging duties of the first importance, with great ability and much public approbation, I still found, that though there was one species of knowledge in which they were greatly superior to me, there was always, when the subject was not merely technical, that is, supple mental to the reality, another species in which I had the advantage of them; and that, when we came to consider the thing itself, and not the mere view which had been taken of it, my knowledge, though it Often, indeed generally, went but awkwardly in mode and figure, went most directly to the point, This helped to convince me that how valuable soever their learning might be among the professedly learned, it was not exactly the best suited to the wants Of a working world. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.