HIS BOOKS 429 



Aug. 25, 1881. 



My dear Sir, I think that nothing of yours has ever escaped my reading 

 or failed to reward it ; so I am very glad that you have consented to prepare 

 the paper on Hurricanes. 



Yours very sincerely, T. B. ALDBICH. 



His book on "Domesticated Animals," illustrated by Seton 

 Thompson, called forth many enthusiastic letters from people 

 having pets and pet theories, who overwhelmed him with anec- 

 dotes concerning the various animals that figure in its pages. 

 He himself always insisted that many of the attributes which 

 constitute a gentleman had passed over to the dog. "We may 

 look upon the dog," he says, "as affording the first step on the 

 path to culture which was to lift man from his primitive selfish- 

 ness to the altruistic state to which he had attained. In his 

 intercourse with this creature man first learned to develop his 

 altruistic motives beyond the limits of his own kind." 



"Man and Earth" is the last contribution to human know- 

 ledge based on scientific inquiry that Mr. Shaler gave to the 

 public the last of his lifelong efforts to interpret the facts 

 and mysteries of nature which he had so lovingly pondered. In 

 this volume he undertook to forecast the future of the globe from 

 the study of its past history. Among other important sugges- 

 tions its pages hold a warning against despoiling the earth of its 

 treasures. He believed that the present reckless use of nature's 

 supplies would eventually transfer to Manchuria and other parts 

 of China the opportunity to furnish the world with its coal and 

 iron, and that the state which commanded the mineral stores of 

 that kingdom might find its way to master the world even more 

 effectively than did Rome in her time. 



In natural science, in short, as in all his work, Mr. Shaler was 

 an innovator and a pioneer, and this is no more markedly evi- 

 dent than in the field of his writing upon the preservation of 

 our woods and waters. His reports on Swamp Lands, and the 

 Origin and Nature of Soils, prepared for the United States 

 Geological Survey, are among the most notable papers bearing 



