It  is  no  longer  "  wicked  "  to  ask  questions  and
to  seek  the  truth.  The  more  you  ask  the  more
truth  you  find.
There  is  a  pleasure  in  the  pathless  woods,
There  is  a  rapture  on  the  lonely  shore,
There  is  society  where  none  intrudes
By  the  deep  sea,  and  music  in  its  roar;
I  love  not  man  the  less,  but  Nature  more
From  these  our  interviews,  in  which  I  steal
From  all  I  may  be  or  have  been  before,
To  mingle  with  the  universe  and  feel
What  I  can  ne'er  express,  yet  cannot  all  conceal.
BYBON.
[ix]


CONTENTS

H AFTER  PAGE

I.  MAN    AND    OTHER    ANIMALS 3

"A  Freethinker's"  Challenge— Cruelty  of  Na-
ture—The Human  Point  of  View  — Man's
Unconsciousness  in  Peril — Hypnotic  Uncon-
sciousness— Parallel  of  the  Telegraph  Office
—  Flagellants  and  Devotees  —  Meaning  of
"Sensation" — Why  Animals  are  Spared
Pain — Man  as  a  Hunting  Animal — Man  as
a  Person.
II.  INSTINCT  AND  REASON 21

Automatic  Actions — Blinking  in  Self-Defense
—Acting  "without  Thinking  "—The  Instan-
taneity  of  Instinct — A  Horse's  Quick  Hear-
ing—Relics of  Old  Habit— Where  Instinct
Passes  Reason— Where  Instinct  Fails.
III.  THE  REALM  OF  UNCONSCIOUSNESS 33

The  Conception  of  the  "  Soul  "—Unconscious
Insects— The  Growth  of  Habits— "  Shame "
in  a  Dog— Need  of  New  Words— The  Sensi-
tive Plant— The  Sea  Anemone— The  Wasp  as
a  Parent  —  Lord  Avebury's  Ants  —  "  Unnat-
ural" Conduct  of  Birds — Cannibal  Mothers
— Consciousness  and  Morality.
