INFLUENCE OF ANIMAL LIFE 5 



and genealogical treatment of Nature have been 

 obtained in the games and customs of mankind. 

 What seems more irresponsible than the behaviour 

 of village children who come every evening to a 

 chosen spot and sing and dance ? What further 

 meaning can there be in a harvest supper than a 

 thanksgiving for the ingathering of the crop ? Yet 

 the words children sing are often charms said before 

 hunting, over water, or at burial, altered almost be- 

 yond recognition from the invocation they represent ; 

 and the harvest supper, like our birthdays, Christmas 

 Day, and Midsummer Day, links us with pagan man 

 and the worship of the spirit of vegetation. 



As there is no known limit to the significance of 

 animal life and behaviour, so we cannot set bounds to 

 the influence of such knowledge on human life. 



Whether we consider its effect on our physical, 

 aesthetic, or scientific faculties, we find that a biological 

 education offers an unrivalled field for observation, 

 to which even children turn with an enthusiasm that 

 needs rather restraining than encouraging. 



The magic of life in the hidden ways and half- 

 lights that field-observation discovers, stimulates the 

 sensitive and artistic nature to a new sense of wonder. 

 ' The cry of the curlew is one of the three oldest cries 

 of the world.' l The elevating effect of the quest of 

 significance, the practical advances that biological 

 research has made and will make in hygienic and 

 agricultural practice, and a more vivid and intelligent 



1 W. B. Yeats. 



