vi PREFACE 



a chef d'oeuvre for the highest — ^the narrowest hinge in my 

 hand — and the mouse that is miracle enough to stagger 

 sextiUions of infidels.' The author of a recently-published 

 admirable introduction to Zoology has used the motto — 

 'Ev iraai yap TOt? (f>vai,Kol<; eveari to dav/jiaarov — and 

 we could wish for no better, being equally persuaded of the 

 cosmic magic. ' Prais'd be the fathomless universe, for 

 life and joy, and for objects and knowledge curious.' It 

 is indeed altogether wonderful, but to different minds 

 different things appeal — to one the way of the eagle in 

 the air, to another the meanest flower that blows. So we 

 have taken a wide sweep in our survey. 



It is also true that science and age are ever changing 

 the focus of our wonder, for as Keats lamented, the rainbow 

 has never been quite the same since Newton looked at it, 

 and the sunbeam that used to steal through the shutters 

 and dance to our half- awed delight many years ago is 

 not quite such a wonder now. But new wonders have 

 taken the place of the sunbeams of our childhood, and so 

 it must always be for those who keep their eyes youzig, 

 that is to say, scientific. If the half-wonders go, the 

 wonder remains, and this — ^the fundamental mysterious- 

 ness of Nature- — -is what we meant our book — in per- 

 formance so far short of our ambition — to illustrate. 



My thanks are due to Miss Shinnie for her skilful 

 illustrations, to the publishers for the considerate patience 

 with which they have borne delays enforced by profes- 

 sional duties, and to Messrs. Macmillan for their kind per- 

 mission to use Huxley's translation of Goethe's Aphorisms. 



J. AETHUE THOMSON. 

 Marischal College, 



The University, Aberdeen. 

 1914. 



