The Individual in the Animal Kingdom #267689

I must confess that when I made choice Animal Individuality as my subject, I had no idea of its real importance, its vastness and many ramifications: the teaching of philosophical biology is in England to-day somewhat of a Cinderella. The working out of the concept, full of interest as it was, brought also regret; a book of the size could have been - should have been - made from every twig and a stout octavo from the central trunk. This might not be; and the unavoidable compression must be pardoned. The general reader must imitate the Organic Individual (p. 26) and take unto himself wings of thought and conscious effort to skip across the imbridged gaps that perforce remain; with them to aid, I think he will find the stepping-stones not too far apart. The professed biologist must not cavil when he finds some merely general truth set dogmatically down as universal; in biology (still so empirical and tentative) there are always exceptions to the poor partial "Laws" we can formulate to-day. To have qualified every statement that needed qualification would have added much to the book's bulk without aiding the argument or being really more "scientific."<br><br>My indebtednesses are great.