270 ON THE STUDY OF BIOLOGY x 



"What ground does it cover? I have said that in 

 its strict technical sense, it denotes all the phe- 

 nomena which are exhibited by living things, as 

 distinguished from those which are not living; 

 but \\liile that is all very well, so long as we 

 confine ourselves to the lower animals and to 

 plants, it lands us in considerable difficulties 

 when we reach the higher forms of living things. 

 For whatever view we may entertain about the 

 nature of man, one thing is perfectly certain, that 

 he is a living creature. Hence, if our definition 

 is to be interpreted strictly, we must include man 

 and all his wavs and works under the head of 

 Biology; in which case, we should find that psy- 

 chology, politics, and political economy would be 

 absorbed into the province of Biology. In fact, 

 civil history would be merged in natural his- 

 tory. In strict logic it may be hard to object to 

 this course, because no one can doubt that the 

 rudiments and outlines of our own mental phe- 

 nomena are traceable among the lower animals. 

 They have their economy and their polity, and if, 

 as is always admitted, the polity of bees and the 

 commonwealth of wolves fall within the purview 

 of the biologist proper, it becomes hard to say why 

 we should not include therein human alfairs, 

 which, in so many cases, resemble those of the bees 

 in zealous getting, and are not without a certain 

 parity in the proceedings of the wolves. The real 

 fact is that we biologists are a self-sacrificing peo- 



