6 THE METHOD AND THE REASON FOR IT. 



ergies, and to stimulate their powers to greater activity, 

 they also need the results of general human investigation 

 as recorded in science and literature. Upon such food 

 the mind feeds and grows. 



This book is specially prepared for minds in the tran- 

 sition state here indicated. The facts given are stated in 

 such a way as to lead to more careful observation, while 

 the relations presented reach up toward the laws and prin- 

 ciples which govern things. The subject-matter embraces 

 the highest orders of animal life and organism in its most 

 complex forms ; its investigation equally calling into exer- 

 cise the perceptive and reflective powers. 



As in the other members of the series, the method of 

 the book is inductive. Each division of the subject be- 

 gins with the representative animal that is nearest home 

 and most familiar. The cat at the fireside serves as an 

 introduction to the lion and tiger and other cats of the 

 wilds ; the kin of the faithful dog is traced in wolf and 

 jackal ; and rats and rabbits represent rodents the world 

 over. From the sty, the stable, and the farm-yard, the 

 mind travels out to the homes of the rhinoceros, the ele- 

 phant, and the buffalo, in desert, plain, and jungle. 



The steps of this route are those of comparison. The 

 imagination is aroused and disciplined. The pictures im- 

 pressed upon the mind are almost as vivid as those ob- 

 tained from direct perception. A taste is developed for 

 scientific research, and a fair preparation is made for suc- 

 cessful scientific study. 



A few fables and stories of the folk-lore kind have 

 been selected to show how animals have been regarded in 

 the past, and how their traits have been used to illustrate 

 and enforce moral lessons. These fables are of such uni- 

 versal application as to be fresh with each generation of 

 children for all time. 



