PREFACE. vii 
which invest the living human frame. <A feeling eye will always discover whether an 
artist has painted even his details of attire from a lay figure instead of depicting the 
raiment as it rests upon and droops from the breathing form of a living model ; for such 
robes are not raiment, but a shroud. So it is with the animal kingdom. The zoologist 
will never comprehend the nature of any creature by the most careful investigation of 
its interior structure or the closest inspection of its stuffed skin, for the material structure 
tells little of the vital nature, and the stuffed skin is but the lay figure stiffly fitted with 
its own cast coat. 
The true study of Zoology is of more importance than is generally conceived, for 
although “the proper study of mankind is Man,” it is impossible for us to comprehend 
the loftiness and grandeur of humanity, or even its individual and physical nature, 
without possessing some knowledge of the earlier forms of God’s animated organiza- 
tions. We must follow the order of creation, and as far as our perceptions will 
permit, begin where the Creator began. We shall then find that no animal leads an 
isolated existence, for the minutest atom of animated life which God has enfranchised 
with an individual existence, forms, though independent in itself, an integral and 
necessary portion of His ever-changing yet eternal organic universe. Hence every being 
which draws the breath of life forms a part of one universal family, bound together 
by the ties of a common creaturehood. And as being ourselves members of that living 
and breathing family, we learn to view with clearer eyes and more reverent hearts those 
beings which, although less godlike than ourselves in their physical or moral natures, 
demand for that very reason our kindliest sympathies and most indulgent care. For we, 
being made in the image of God, are to them the visible representations of that Divine 
Being who gave the Sabbath alike for man and beast, and who takes even the sparrows 
under His personal protection. 
