iv PREFACE 



them are of apes in a wild state. The author has carefully 

 refrained from abstruse theories or rash deductions, but 

 has sought to place the animals here treated of in the light 

 to which their own conduct entitles them, allowing the 

 reader to draw his own conclusions. 



The author frankly confesses to his own belief in the 

 psychic unity of all animate nature. Believing in a com- 

 mon source of life, a common law of living, and a common 

 destiny for all creatures, he feels that to dignify the apes 

 is not to degrade man but rather to exalt him. 



Believing that a more perfect knowledge of these ani- 

 mals will bring man into closer fellowship and deeper sym- 

 pathy with nature, and with an abiding trust that it will 

 widen the bounds of humanity and cause man to realize 

 that he and they are but common links in the one great 

 chain of life, the author gives this work to the world. 

 When once man is impressed with the consciousness that 

 in some degree, however small, all creatures think and feel, 

 it will lessen his vanity and ennoble his heart. 



THE AUTHOR 



