The Courtship of Animals (Classic Reprint) - Softcover

Pycraft, W. P.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1330382870 ISBN 13: 9781330382875

Verlag: Forgotten Books, 2019

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Excerpt from The Courtship of Animals

The purely physical phenomena Of life, to be rightly appreciated, must always be considered in relation to the psychical phenomena which are the soul of life. These subtle and intangible forces cannot be experimented with in the laboratory, or expressed in formulae; we cannot denote their strength in horse-power. Just as the physi cal manifestations of life begin with lowly types, so the psychical begin, and they gather strength and complexity with the bodies they pervade. These mani festations we call behaviour, and in their more intense developments, emotions.

These emotions present an infinite range of variety in the higher animals, and they attain their maximum of intensity wherever the reproductive activities are con cerned. The part which these act1v1t1es play in con trolling behaviour is by no means always apparent, and is commonly not even suspected. Even man himself is subject to this control. And it is this fact which lifts the Courtship of the lower animals out of the category of merely curious phenomena. For the springs of his conduct, his behaviour and emotions under varying circumstances, can only be understood, and even then but imperfectly, by comparison with other creatures lower in the scale, so far, of course, as comparison is possible.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Reseña del editor:

Excerpt from The Courtship of Animals

That "one touch of Nature which makes the whole World kin" is surely nowhere more obvious than in the "Courtship" of Animals. For the "Beasts that Perish," no less than Man himself, are stirred by the same emotions; the Fever of Love runs as high in them as in ourselves; and its modes of expression are not so different, though they may superficially appear to be so. The nature of these differences and their interpretation, it is the purpose of this book to set forth.

Charles Darwin laid the foundation for the study of this phase of Animal behaviour in his masterly work on the "Descent of Man," a work which has been much criticized and much misunderstood since Carlyle's crude abuse of it as the "Gospel of Dirt." Darwin was the first to show us that the fierce battles, and strange antics, which characterize so many of the "Lower Orders of Creation" under the exaltation of the Sexual emotions are manifestations fraught with tremendous consequences to the race.

The facts which he brought to light, and the discussions to which they have given rise, have, however, unfortunately been too commonly regarded as merely interesting to those who have a liking for Natural History.

This is a most unfortunate mistake. For such facts have a vitally important bearing on the very problems of social well-being which now loom so largely among us. "Reform" is in the air.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Über diese Auflage

• Verlag: Forgotten Books
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2019
• ISBN 10: 1330382870
• ISBN 13: 9781330382875
• Einband: Tapa blanda
• Anzahl der Seiten: 416