PREFACE. IX 



to understand these " higher walks of science," " nor the desire for 

 its cultivation." The work extends to six hundred and sixty-five pages, 

 and is divided into three thousand six hundred and fifty-two verses 

 consecutively numbered : some of them, as we have seen, are diffuse 

 and argumentative; others enunciate dicta in the most terse and 

 authoritative style : here are three examples. 



" 2684. Pouncing is hopping in the air." — p. 444. 



I once heard of the Society's " pouncing " on the ' Zoologist.' I 

 thought it alluded to gleaning the addresses of naturalists from the 

 pages of the ' Zoologist ;' to soliciting these particular naturalists to be- 

 come subscribers ; to circulating the Society's prospectuses sewed up 

 with the ' Zoologist:' I thought this was the "pouncing" to which 

 allusion was made, but I am enlightened now : the Society was " hop- 

 ping in the air." The next verse stands thus. 



" 2685. Diving is hopping in the water." — p. 444. 



There is another application of the term diving that has a plebeian 

 reference to pecuniary matters ; I have heard this very Society irreve- 

 rently charged with " diving " into our pockets, and not giving back 

 an adequate return. This use of the term was always vulgar, and 

 is henceforth decidedly erroneous : " Diving is hopping in the 

 water." 



" 2884. A single world is dead, so also are many." — p. 473. 



How sad to think that the world is dead ! There is, however, a ray 

 of comfort in the assurance that this makes no difference to the mon- 

 keys; they are extra-mundane, and feel no inconvenience from the 

 death of one world or many : we are assured, for our consolation, that 

 " For the Apes there is no world ; but only tree-fruits female and 

 male." What extra-mundane entity a female tree-fruit may be I have 

 "neither the capacity" to understand "nor the desire for its culti- 

 vation." However, it is pleasing to know that for the monkeys it 

 answers all the purposes of a world. 



Here is a specimen of Oken's poetic vein. 



" Gazing upon a Snail, one believes that he finds the prophesying 

 goddess sitting upon the tripod. What majesty is in a creeping- 

 Snail, what reflection, what earnestness, what timidity and yet at the 



