PREFACE. vii 



the loftiness and grandeur of humanity, or even its individual and physical nature, 

 without possessing some knowledge of the earlier forms of God's animated organiza- 

 tions. We must follow the order of creation, and as far as our perceptions will permit, 

 begin where the Creator began. We shall then find that no animal leads an isolated 

 existence, for the minutest atom of animated life which God has enfranchised with an 

 individual existence, forms, though independent in itself, an integral and necessary 

 portion of His ever-changing yet eternal organic universe. Hence every being which 

 draws the breath of life forms a part of one universal family, bound together by the 

 ties of a common creaturehood. And as being ourselves members of that living and 

 breathing family we learn to view with clearer eyes and more reverent hearts those 

 beings which, although less godlike than ourselves in their physical or moral natures, 

 demand for that very reason our kindliest sympathies and most indulgent care. For 

 we, being made in the image of God, are to them the visible representations of that 

 Divine Being who gave the Sabbath alike for man and beast, and who takes even the 

 sparrows under His personal protection. 



