24 WILD TRAITS IN TAME ANIMALS. 



in the book of nature is without its meaning, 

 and even when the key to her cipher is not yet 

 in our hands, the astonishing progress which has 

 been made during a single generation makes it 

 probable that we have only to wait and to labour 

 awhile longer to be able to read the wondrous 

 tale. Darwinism has done more in this way for 

 the naturalist than the spectroscope has done for 

 the astronomer, or the discovery of the cuneiform 

 alphabet for the archaeologist. As yet we are 

 only stumbling among the elements of the new 

 method, but already it is often possible, by 

 exercising our reasoning faculty and our know- 

 ledge of natural laws when observinsf the most 

 commonplace phenomena, to see in them a 

 revelation of the past which was utterly beyond 

 the reach of our fathers. 



Yet it must never be forgotten that if our 

 attempts to interpret nature's hieroglyphics are 

 not based upon extensive and accurate know- 

 ledge, we shall run the same risk of coming to 

 wrono- conclusions as would the savaee if he 

 were not thoroughly versed in all phases of his 

 wild surroundings. It is necessary to keep a 

 constant check upon the innate propensity to 

 draw inferences from whatever we see or think 



