Les Choses Naturelles dans Homère Gleanings from the Natural History of the Ancients The Works of Xenophon Aristotle on Youth and Old Age, Life and Death and Respiration

Abstract

THE consideration of the animal world is usually approached from one or other of three points of view. We may be interested in the structure—the morphology and physiology—of animals, and in their place in nature: this is the biological interest. Or we may be especially interested in their habits and doings, and every one has at least observed something of the characters and ways of more than one species of animal. Or we may regard animals as objects of the chase or material for human food. The first of these interests is purely scientific; it must exclude hearsay and fancy; it must be based on the most careful observation and examination with the aid of all the appliances that contemporary art and manufacture can furnish; and it must admit nothing that is unverifiable or supported by doubtful authority. On the other hand, the study of the habits and characters of animals can seldom confine itself to lines so rigidly laid down as these; not only is it extremely difficult for the most scientific investigators to interpret or even to record the actions of the lower creatures without a certain, often unconscious, anthropomorphism or reading-in of motives into them; but we are also confronted by a mass of current beliefs and superstitions, and imperfectly authenticated tales which, in view of their frequent repetition and the widespread evidence accorded to them, it is impossible to dismiss unconsidered, improbable though they may seem at first. Such legends can never be wholly banished from view until we have accounted for their coming into being at all; and the naturalist is thus frequently led into the domain of folklore and the study of primitive religious ideas, which from totemistic stages onwards have always in some way or other touched upon the connection of the human and animal worlds. The attitude of the huntsman is different from both those just considered: he makes a very minute study of some of the habits of a few animals, mainly with a view to making himself master of them in a manner gratifying to the sporting instinct.

Les Choses Naturelles dans Homère.

Par le Dr. A. Kums. Pp. 194. (Antwerp: Buschmann. Paris: Alcan, 1897.)

Gleanings from the Natural History of the Ancients.

By the Rev. M. G. Watkins Pp. xiii + 258. (London: Elliot Stock, 1896.).

The Works of Xenophon.

Translated by H. G. Dakyns. Vol. iii. part ii. Pp. lxx + 130. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1897.)

Aristotle on Youth and Old Age, Life and Death and Respiration.

Translated, with Introduction and Notes, by W. Ogle. Pp. 135. (London: Longmans and Co., 1897.)