Abstract
THIS is a well-intentioned little work, illustrated by a set of, for the most part, unobjectionable woodcuts. It is intended for the young, and so scientific terms have been almost wholly discarded. The author states very correctly, that in order to impress a fact upon the mind of a child, that fact must be presented in an interesting and attractive manner, and it is presumably bearing this in mind that he has selected the title to his volume, for children soon learn to know all that is attractive and interesting in the conception of a servant, and the child that reads the introductory chapter to these sketches of the animal kingdom will have this subject brought before him in full detail. But as the thinking child reads on, will his tender mind not be frightened at the notion so forcibly dwelt upon by Mr. Wood, that this serving Nature means that the strong servants should kill and swallow the weak; that while by one law of “Mistress Nature” the servants are to increase and multiply, by another law of the same Dame the feeble and the little ones are destroyed by the strong and the big, and that it is thus that these servants, now become foes, “fulfil their trust.” The young inquirer who reads this on the first page may find it hard to agree with the statement on the last page, that “Nature is a good mistress, and provides her servants with all that they may require.”
Nature and Her Servants; or, Sketches of the Animal Kingdom.
By Theodore Wood. (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1886.)
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
[Book Reviews]. Nature 33, 150 (1885). https://doi.org/10.1038/033150c0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/033150c0