304 WILD TRAITS IN TAME ANIMALS. 



will conclude our simile — there has been a general 

 levelling up as well as a levelling down. No 

 single item in the great commonwealth of science 

 can ever again be despised or ignored as under 

 the old rdgime. 



Although, as was pointed out in the intro- 

 ductory chapter, the stimulus given of late to the 

 study of natural history has greatly increased the 

 number of workers in this branch of science, it 

 has widened the field in a still more striking 

 manner. There need be no fear that, like the 

 British coal - fields, the supply of unworked 

 material is in danger of becoming exhausted. 

 Regions which offer the most tempting prospect 

 to the investigator are continually coming within 

 our view. Each fresh discovery, instead of fixing 

 a limit to our researches, is a Pisgah height from 

 which new lands "flowing with milk and honey" 

 can be discerned. 



In the preceding pages many examples have 

 been given of the way in which Darwinism opens 

 the door to the naturalist. It would have been 

 no more possible for our forefathers to have read 

 the meaning of many of the wild traits of 

 domestic animals than it would have been for 

 them to have studied the chemistry of the stars. 



