22 The Bible of Nature 



cis Gal ton puts it: "The organic world as a whole 

 is a perpetual flux of changing types." And yet 

 there is a not less remarkable stability of types, 

 and the great styles of organic architecture are 

 after all very few. 



The Drama of Animal Life. To the naturalist 

 there is perennial wonder in the drama of animal 

 life. The more he knows of animal behavior, the 

 greater is his wonder. Let us think of this for a 

 moment. 



All around us, except in our cities, we see a 

 busy animal life, swayed by the twin impulses of 

 Hunger and Love. There is eager endeavour after 

 individual well-being, there is not less careful 

 effort which secures the welfare of the young. 

 The former varies from a keen and literal struggle 

 for subsistence to a gay pursuit of aesthetic lux- 

 uries; the latter rises from physiologically necessary 

 life-losing and instinctive parental industry to re- 

 markable heights of what seem to us like deliber- 

 ate sacrifice and affectionate devotion. The old 

 question and answer are fundamental, for beast 

 as well as man: 



"Warum treibt sich das Volk so und schreit? 

 Es will sich ernahren, Kinder zeugen, 

 Und die nahren so gut es vermag." 



On the one hand, we see struggle, struggle 

 between mates, between rival suitors, between 



