" I have not tampered with it.
Perhaps a man of genius who found it interesting might have learned
the technical terms more readily than lawyers deem possible. But
Will, so accurate in his legal terms, is so inaccurate on many other
points; for example, in civil and natural history, and in classic
lore. Mr. Greenwood proves him to be totally at sea as a naturalist.
On the habits of bees, for example, "his natural history of the
insect is as limited as it is inaccurate." {284a} Virgil, though not
a Lord Avebury, was a great entomologist, compared with Will. About
the cuckoo Will was recklessly misinformed. His Natural History was
folklore, or was taken from that great mediaeval storehouse of
absurdities, the popular work of Pliny. "He went to contemporary
error or antiquated fancy for his facts, not to nature," says a
critic quoted by Mr. Greenwood. {284b} Was that worthy of Bacon?
All these charges against le vieux Williams (as Theophile Gautier
calls our Will) I admit. But Will was no Bacon; Will had not "taken
all knowledge for his province." Bacon, I hope, had not neglected
Bees! Thus the problem, why is Will accurate in his legal
terminology, and reckless of accuracy in quantity, in history, in
classic matters, is not by me to be solved. I can only surmise that
from curiosity, or for some other unknown reason, he had read law-
books, or drawn information from Templars about the meaning of their
jargon, and that, for once, he was technically accurate.
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