6 MAN AND ANIMALS 



In short, the animal is not a "horrid thing," as it is painted in story and 

 in many a dimly lighted imagination. There is nothing devilish about it. 



And here is the moral of the "devil fish ": If there is a corner of your mind 

 that wants to attribute to the octopus malevolent qualities and powers that it 

 does not possess, and is content to overlook or deny to it qualities and powers 

 of interest and beauty that it does possess, mark my word, the same corner of 

 your mind will tend to treat such at least of your fellow-men as you do not know 

 well, in the same way. This unfortunate corner of your mind will, like all 

 other corners, be true to itself — to its own qualities. It is the old impossibility 

 of blowing hot and blowing cold at the same time. — Ritter (i). 



We may accept this as one of our relations to nature and general 

 culture, and sanity toward nature as one of the benefits to be derived 

 from study of science and nature. 



2. SCIENCE AND NATURE 



All biological problems are problems of nature. Evolution became a 

 problem only when a large knowledge regarding the number and diversity 

 of animal species had been acquired. This has been the problem around 

 which most zoological facts have been accumulated. Indeed, most 

 zoologists have little interest in problems not throwing light on evolution. 

 The development of zoology has therefore been one-sided. Had geology 

 clung as closely to the origin of the earth as zoology to evolution, it 

 would not be the unified science w T hich w r e see it today. The lack of 

 unity in zoology has been caused in part by the neglect of the aspects 

 which we are to take up here. In this connection, Thompson (2) has 

 said of Brehm, one of the older students of natural history: " He [Brehm] 

 had unusual power as an observer of the habits of animals. His 

 particular excellence is his power of observing and picturing animal 

 life as it is lived in nature, without taking account of wdiich, biology is 

 a mockery, and any theory of evolution a one-sided dogma." It follows 

 also that sanity in science is dependent upon a knowledge of nature. 

 Our first steps in the task before us must accordingly be a consideration 

 of wild nature as it really is. This can perhaps best be accomplished by 

 comparing the reality with some of our conceptions of it. 



II. The Struggle in Nature 



The first step toward an understanding of our relation to nature, 

 or rather the animals and animal communities of natural conditions, is 

 to acquire a knowledge of the conditions of animals in a state of nature. 

 There is much literature on this subject, but our conception of the 

 struggle for existence and the survival of the fittest is too often entirely 



