22 The Bible of Nature 



CIS Galton 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 sesthetic 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 ern'ahren, Kinder zeugen, 

 Und die nahren so gut es vermag." 



On the one hand, we see struggle, — struggle 

 between mates, between rival suitors, between 



