blunder of writers on Animal Psychology, who are wont 

 rather to be dazzled by the overwhelming mass of materials 

 than to be enlightened thereby. For it is just in the indi- 

 vidual and in the minute, rather than in the general, that 

 the truth of the above-named principle shines out most 

 clearly and most strikingly ; and it is here, at the same time, 

 that we shall find the most easily recognisable land-marks 

 for further researches in this direction. And this is so,, 

 although the proposed sketch does not pretend to lay claim 

 to completeness, and although the writer has been compelled 

 by the limits of a popular work to confine himself to the 

 most necessary and to the most commonly known things, 

 and to make many distasteful abridgements. Even those 

 who turn away from the philosophical meaning and tendency 

 of the observations herein recorded, and only desire enter- 

 tainment, or entertaining instruction, will also, the author 

 hopes, not be disappointed in reading the book, although the- 

 thoughtful reader is enabled to enjoy a special pleasure of 

 his own in the likeness to the doings of men which lies on 

 the surface and indeed presses itself on his attention. The 

 well-known philosopher, Daumer, who has passed from 

 Radicalism to piety, has indeed made the characteristic 

 remark that many glimpses into the minds of animals ''must 

 make one shudder." But this can only be when anyone 

 clings to the antiquated notion that animals are beings 

 entirely and essentially distinct from men, and that all they 

 do can only be the outcome of unconscious and unchange- 

 able instincts. All others must feel a true intellectual joy 

 when they recognise in the psychical world that same law of 

 the origin and development of organic life, that has been 

 demonstrated in physical things by Lamarck, Oken, Darwin,. 

 Hack el, and others 



