32 ANIMAL INDIVIDUALITY [OH. 



single starting-point whence we could logically work 

 backwards to all the rest of the organic world, but 

 must regard them as an ending instead of a beginning, 

 and, what is more, as but one ending among many. 

 From the single beginning, many lines have branched 

 out to the many endings, and the only logical method 

 is to start from the beginning (where, too, the 

 phenomena themselves are far less complicated) and 

 trace out each line to its ending, instead of trying to 

 bring the various endings into relation with each 

 other. Each ending is only intelligible through its 

 history, and the history of one is different from the 

 history of another. 



The one advantage possessed by the anthropo- 

 morphic view of individuality (which, as a half- 

 unconscious product of every-day experience, is still 

 held by the great majority of those who are not 

 professed biologists) lies in its dealing with long- 

 familiar things. Since, however, this is a very real 

 advantage to those who are approaching a subject 

 the major part of which is bound to be not at all 

 familiar, " full of strange oaths," and so bristling with 

 new names that " bearded like the pard " is scarce a 

 stretch of metaphor, we shall begin here with man ; 

 thence, taking stock of the more obvious facts of 

 comparative anatomy, with the historical or evolu- 

 tionary idea to aid us, try to extend the conception 

 from man to the rest of the animal kingdom; then 



