158 FISH AS FA THERS. 



Still, by hook and by crook (especially the former), by 

 observation here and experiment there, naturalists in the 

 end have managed to piece together a considerable mass 

 of curious and interesting information of an out-of-the- 

 way sort about the domestic habits and manners of 

 sundry piscine races. And, indeed, the morals of fish 

 are far more varied and divergent than the uniform 

 nature of the world they inhabit might lead an a priori 

 philosopher to imagine. To the eye of the mere casual 

 observer every fish would seem at first sight to be a mere 

 fish, and to differ but little in sentiments and ethical 

 culture from all the rest of his remote cousins. But 

 when one comes to look closer at their character and 

 antecedents, it becomes evident at once that there is a 

 deal of unsuspected originality and caprice about sharks 

 and flat-fish. Instead of comforming throughout to a 

 single plan, as the young, the gay, the giddy, and the 

 thoughtless are too prone to conclude, fish are in reality 

 as various and variable in their mode of life as any other 

 great group in the animal kingdom. Monogamy and 

 polygamy, socialism and individualism, the patriarchal 

 and matriarchal types of government, the oviparous and 

 viviparous methods of reproduction, perhaps even the 

 dissidence of dissent and esoteric Buddhism, all alike 

 are well represented in one family or another of this ex- 

 tremely eclectic and philosophically unprejudiced class 

 of animals. 



If you want a perfect model of domestic virtue, for 

 example, where can you find it in higher perfection than 

 in that exemplary and devoted father, the common great 

 pipe-fish of the North Atlantic and the British Seas ? 



