Animal existence

“ We must consider some as fundamental parts, without which the animal cannot exist, and which are more accessory and external, and appear to derive their origin from the first, and which seem to be formed as much for the ornament, symmetry, and external perfection of the animal, as for the necessity of its existence, and the exercise of the essential functions of life. ”

“ If the conditions of existence were different from what they are animal life would show corresponding modifications. But all the same we should observe the same correspondence between animal life and its surroundings. ”

“ The changes in behavior during the life of the animal or the development of its behavior give one of the main clues to the physiological conditions which determine some of the most characteristic forms of responses, and finally as a result of all these activities and processes of adjustment to the conditions of life, a relatively mature and adjusted condition of the struggle for existence in animals and associations may be reached, the culmination of animal harmonies. ”

“ It is evident that all living [Pg 299] creatures, from the zoophyte upwards, plant, reptile, bird, animal, and in his natural state—in his physical frame—man also, strive with all their powers to obtain as perfect an existence as possible. ”

“ I might speak of the use of animals to man for food, for clothing, to bear his burdens, to delight him with their beauty and affection animal. He has animal instincts, desires, passions, tastes, habits, powers, in a word, an animal nature. He possesses not merely the special faculties of one animal. The qualities of all animals are embodied in him. Plants and animals are special forms and qualities of life, all of which are combined in every human being. ”

“ In all works on Natural History, we constantly find details of the marvellous adaptation of animals to their food, their habits, and the localities in which they are found. But naturalists are now beginning to look beyond this, and to see that there must be some other principle regulating the infinitely varied forms of animal life. ”

“ What, therefore, is the principle of life in animals? What is it that raises the noble animal, as surely as the heavens which encircle the sun and the planets, from the sphere of perplexity and doubt? ”

“ But both of these animals agree in possessing in common the capability of performing those processes such as taking food, breathing, reproducing, etc., to which attention has been called as being indispensable to all animal life. ”

“ When we observe an animal possessing that physical form and construction peculiar to its species, we expect to find it practically exhibiting the nature, character, disposition, and habits peculiar to that class of animals. ”

“ Man, then, considered zoologically, and without regard to the distinct character assigned to him by theology, simply takes his place as the type of all types of the animal kingdom, the true and unmistakable head of animated nature upon this earth. It will readily occur that some more particular investigations into the ranks of types might throw additional light on man’s status, and perhaps his nature; and such light we may hope to obtain when the philosophy of zoology shall have been studied as it deserves. ”

“ This is the original order to which animal nature is subjected, as applied to every species of it. The beasts of the field, the fowls of the air, the fishes of the sea, with reptiles, and all manner of beings, which are possessed with animal life; nor is pain, sickness, or mortality any part of God's punishment for sin. ”

“ And—if we review the entire animal kingdom, are not these higher animals closely akin to us, both in bodily structure as also in all that appertains to their functional activities? So near, indeed, do they approach us in the degree of evolution that for that very reason it would seem natural to attribute to them some rudiments of thought—some latent abilities ”

“ We have now arrived at the highest rank in the scale of animal life—the four-footed, hair-clad, milk-nursed denizens of our woods and fields—the subclass Mammalia, mammals.
These are the "animals" of popular speech, but accuracy requires a more distinctive expression, for every living thing not a plant is an "animal." ”

“ To trace out the progressive development of animal life, from its humblest phases; and to mark, as they become visible in the intermediate grades, the first rudiments of organs and instincts which are destined to attain their maximum in the higher ones, embody but a small portion of what it is the naturalist's mission to investigate. ”

“ The aim of The World of Animal Life is to give in non-scientific language an account of those inhabitants of the land, sea, and sky with whose names we are all familiar, but concerning whose manner of life the majority of us have only the haziest conceptions. ”

“ Whether Man should take his place in the animal kingdom? a question which evidently leads to another: Is man distinguished from animals by important and characteristic phenomena, absolutely unknown in the latter? ”

“ We could fill pages with the account of the differences existing between animals created for such different purposes and fitted to inhabit different climates, their mode of feeding and catching prey. The manner of bringing forth and rearing the young, and the temperament and temper of the animal creation would fill a volume, but we cannot now stay to examine these various characteristics. ”

“ The animal feels and perceives its surroundings, reflects its sensations, moves of its own will under their influence, and, as a rule, can communicate by its voice its desires and its fears, its pleasures or its pains. I call organic life the sum of the functions of the former class, for all organised creatures, plants or animals, possess them to a more or less marked degree, and organised structure is the sole condition necessary to their exercise. ”

“ We come, now, to the first appearance, so far as we know, of an animal that by reason of a superior development of its brain was destined to subjugate all the other members of the animal kingdom—the animal which we know as Man. ”

“ We have exceedingly few of those details of manners, those narratives of instinctive actions, those accounts of curious contrivances and stratagems by which the great purposes of animal life are fulfilled, those delightful anecdotes of individual biography,—that throw such a charm over the history of other Classes of Vertebrate animals. ”

“ The fishes, frogs, reptiles, birds, and non-human mammals are human in having two body cavities, segmented internal skeletons, two pairs of limbs, skulls and spinal columns, red blood, brains, and dorsal cords; and in possessing two eyes, two ears, nostrils, and mouth opening out of the head. And finally all animals, including man, are related to all other animal forms by the great underlying facts of their origin, structure, composition, and destiny. All creatures, whether they live in the sea, in the heavens, or in subterranean glooms; whether they swim, fly, crawl, or walk ”

“ And so we have finished our account of the reasons for the parts of each kind of animal, of the soul, and furthere of sense-perception, of sleep, of memory, and of movement in general; it remains to speak of animal generation. ”

“ But who attributes to the animals a belief that the phenomena of nature are worked by a multitude of invisible animals or by one enormous and prodigiously strong animal behind the scenes? It is probably no injustice to the brutes to assume that the honour of devising a theory of this latter sort must be reserved for human reason. ”

“ The Shakesperian conception of the human world as a stage may be paralleled in the animal world. Animals, like human beings, have all a definite rôle to play in the drama of life. Each is given certain equipment in form, colour, voice, demeanour, ambitions, desires, and natural habitat. ”

“ Each creature consists of four representative forms of animal life combined in one, viz. that of the lion, the ox, the eagle, and man, together producing a strange, anomalous figure which is generally thought to personify wild animals, domestic animals, birds, and man, as possessing a common physical life, or created life in its entirety represented by its higher and more notable forms. ”

“ How far have we at present accounted for the varied animal colouration which we see around us? the glory of our cabinetdrawers, the mysterious wonder in the galleries of our museums, the charm of travellers abroad, and appreciative lovers of nature at home. Very much, when the difficulty of the problem is considered, and especially where the utility of animal disguises and mimicking appearances has been unravelled by the magic wand of "natural selection," or "the survival of the fittest." ”

“ The discovery of the true nature of the food of this species is particularly desirable, and may enable us to have the animal brought alive to this country, a thing which we believe has not been attempted ”

“ If any animals are special creations, all are so; and each animal must be supposed to have been created for the special purposes that are apparent upon an examination of its structure and mode of life. ”

“ If all the varieties of animal life spring from one and the same germ under the uniform laws of nature, how is it that in some [Pg 459] regions, fitted in every respect for the support of animal life, no animals whatever of the higher order are found? ”

“ The same step-ladder which is exhibited by the whole animal kingdom, the steps of which are the different races and classes, with at the one extreme the [pg 132] lowliest animals and at the other the highest, is exhibited also by every higher animal in its development, since from the moment of its origin until it has reached its full development it passes through—both as regards internal and external organisation—the essentials of all the forms which become permanent for a lifetime in the animals lower than itself. ”

“ At the present time naturalists are endeavouring to arrive at conclusions regarding certain groups of phenomena relating to animal life, which phenomena have every appearance of being intimately associated with one another. ”

“ And this consideration, it is needless to point out, has a special validity to the evolutionist, inasmuch as upon his theory there must be a psychological, no less than a physiological, continuity extending throughout the length and breadth of the animal kingdom. ”

“ In entering upon the subject of Curiosities respecting Animals, we shall first introduce to the reader some interesting observations respecting the generation, formation, preservation, destruction, and reproduction, of animals in general; and, first, of animal generation.
Animal generation holds the first place among all that raise our admiration when we consider the Works of the Creator, and chiefly that appointment by which he has regulated the propagation, which is wisely adapted to the disposition and mode of life of every different species of animals, that people earth, air, or sea. ”

“ We have next to see that when this period of searching adversity comes—as it will in the next chapter—the animal world also offers a luxuriant variety of forms from which the higher types may be selected. ”

“ What, then, becomes of special creation of every species of animal, if man in a few years can produce a dozen forms out of one, any one of which dozen is so distinct as to be deemed a new species, were it Nature's work and not man's? The fact is thus demonstrated that animals become varied in accordance with variations in their surroundings. This simple fact, once substantiated, is the key to the whole subject. Man's influence ceases when he leaves the animal to itself. But Nature never leaves the animal to itself. ”

“ But for all healthy people accustomed to the outdoor world, the study of animal life has always possessed an interest. Its interest has, however, been increased a hundred fold by the progress of modern discovery, which has taught us to see in the animal kingdom one large family, working its way upwards from humble beginnings, to more perfect structure of body, and more complete intelligence of mind. ”

“ All natural philosophers and historians who have made the nature and habits of the animal creation their study have agreed upon this fact; that all healthy animals, unless their lives are terminated by violence, live five times as long as it takes them to grow up. ”

“ The definition, however, on which he proceeds is scarcely correct, or at least sufficiently distinctive:—"An animal is an animated body, endowed with sense and spontaneous motion, or rather with the faculty of feeling and moving, although it may not change place." In treating of the generation of the lower species, he discusses the subject of spontaneous or equivocal origin, the idea of which he refutes, and endeavours to prove that all animals were created at one time. ”

“ It must be evident to every reader that but very few of the striking features of animal life have been mentioned in the rapid survey which has been taken of the progress of animal organization. The subject is so extensive that it would be quite impossible to embrace it within any reasonable limits; and it furnishes matter so curious and so instructive, that, having once entered on it, it would have been difficult to have made any selection, and we must have devoted a volume to the æsthetics of natural science. ”

“ The root and foundation of the animal life I reckon to be sense, as it is opposed to faith, and importeth our perception of things, that are either grateful or troublesome to us. Now these animal affections, as they are implanted in us by nature, are not vicious or blameable; nay, they are instances of the wisdom of the Creator, furnishing his creatures with such appetites as tend to the preservation and welfare of their lives. ”

“ But all animals have and hold a principle in their interior. Wherefore the heart is seen as the first distinct part in animals that have blood; for it is the origin of all the parts, whether similar or dissimilar; and the creature that begins to feel the necessity of nourishment, must already be possessed by the principle of an animal and a full-grown fœtus. ”