| page_0001[stamped] SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
[written] 217
[stamped] WASHINGTON D.C.
[handwritten]
February 14, 1856
My Dear Robert
I have allowed your letter
to remain unanswered for some
days in hopes of finding Mayne
Reeds Hunters Feast and thus
understanding more particularly
his positions in regard to Closet
Naturalists. Capt. Reed writes
charming stories, and has a
marvellous facility for appropri-
ating the labors of others, but
as you suggest, what has he done
that entitles him to sneer at
any class of Naturalists. As far as
my experience of his writings goes,
he has never added a single
fact to Nat. History before
unknown; and shines entirely
on the capital of others, worst
of all, never acknowledging his
indebtedness in any way.
For my part I never met
with a closet naturalist as
understood by men like Mayne
Reed. We certainly never have
had any in America. No clo-
set writer, that is man who
records observations and investiga-
tions, but has served a long | page_0001[stamped] SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
[written] 217
[stamped] WASHINGTON D.C.
[handwritten]
February 14, 1856
My Dear Robert
I have allowed your letter
to remain unanswered for some
days in hopes of finding Mayne
Reeds Hunters Feast and thus
understanding more particularly
his positions in regard to Closet
Naturalists. Capt. Reed writes
charming stories, and has a
marvellous facility for appropri-
ating the labors of others, but
as you suggest, what has he done
that entitles him to sneer at
any class of Naturalists. As far as
my experience of his writings goes,
he has never added a single
fact to Nat. History before
unknown; and shines entirely
on the capital of others, worst
of all, never acknowledging his
indebtedness in any way.
For my part I never met
with a closet naturalist as
understood by men like Mayne
Reed. We certainly never have
had any in America. No clo-
set writer, that is man who
records observations and investiga-
tions, but has served a long |
EN