10 FOR PARENTS. 



than forty years ago, will, it is confidently believed, be as 

 fresh and trustworthy forty years hence as it is now. 



The compiler has thought it an advantage to connect 

 stories about a great variety of animals with one person, and 

 he an observer of such credibility and authority that little 

 if anything that was learned of him would have to be un- 

 learned. Mr. Darwin is, of course, pre-eminently such an ob- 

 server. On the other hand, by carefully connecting these 

 stories also with the places on the earth's surface where the 

 animals were studied, a correct notion will be had of the 

 distribution of the animal kingdom, with a corresponding 

 insight into the geography of the globe in its broadest sense. 

 Finally, by placing these stories first in order, the attention 

 of the youngest readers is assured. No artificial grouping 

 has been attempted. 



II. Scarcely inferior in interest to tales of animals are 

 accounts of strange peoples and customs, particularly of sav- 

 age and barbarous life. The section entitled " Man," there- 

 fore, should not disappoint the youthful reader. 



III. Closely allied with the foregoing are the contents of 

 the section entitled (for want of a better designation) " Ge- 

 ography," which consists partly of descriptions of cities, the 

 habitations of man, partly of descriptions of rivers, moun- 

 tains, valleys, plains, and other physical features of the coun- 

 tries visited by Mr. Darwin. 



IV. Finally, in the section styled " Nature " will be found 

 some account of the grander terrestrial processes and phe- 



