PREFACE 



In the early days of zoology there were naturalists who 

 spent much time out of doors observing the ways of the 

 birds, the insects, and the other creatures of the fields and 

 woods. These men were not steeped in technical learning. 

 Nature was a source of inspiration and a delight to them; 

 her manifestations were to be taken for granted and not 

 questioned too closely. A mind able to accept appear- 

 ances for truth can express itself in the words of everyday 

 language — for language was invented long ago when 

 people did not bother themselves much with facts — and 

 some of those early writers, inspired direct from nature, 

 have left us a delightful literature based on their observa- 

 tions and reflections on the things of nature. The public 

 has liked to read the works of these men because they tell 

 of interesting things in an interesting way and in words 

 that can be understood. 



At the same time there was another class of nature 

 students who did not care particularly what an animal did, 

 but who wanted to know how it was made. The devotees 

 of this cult looked at things through microscopes; they 

 dissected all kinds of creatures in order to learn their con- 

 struction and their structural relationships. But they 

 found many things on the inside of animals that had never 

 been named, so for these things they invented names; and 

 when their books were printed the public could not read 

 them because of the strange words they contained. More- 

 over, since nature does not usually embellish her hidden 

 works, the anatomists could not enhance their writings 

 with descriptive metaphors in the way the outdoor 

 naturalists could. Consequently, the students of struc- 

 ture have never come into favor with the reading public, 

 and their works are denounced as dry and tedious. 



[i] 



