Children love pets; they never tire of stories; and they are delighted with jingle and the fun of incongruity. Mother Goose reigns supreme in the fairy-land of infancy. Through these loves the little opening minds may be led to careful observation, comparison, and descriptions—steps at once necessary to mental growth, and leading up to the portals of science. By insensible degrees, play may be made to merge in study, and fun take on the form of fact.
Upon these ideas of the basis and method of thought, this little work has been constructed. A few familiar nursery-rhymes serve to connect the present with the past thought of the child. The pet of the household—the cat—is studied. From the obvious in structure and movement, the mind is led to see relations, and the adaptations of structure to functions and outward conditions. As each new animal is introduced, the study goes on by comparisons, showing resemblances and differences, and pointing toward scientific classifications.
This and kindred works will be of little use, however, if the lessons stop with the book. The whole intent of the method is to incite to a study of the animals themselves—the matter in the book directing attention, arousing interest, and serving as a guide to observation.
An endeavor has been made to present the pleasant side of animal life. To this end the affection, the intelligence, and the uses of our servants and friends have been dwelt upon, and ideas of violence have received but a passing notice. That we should be kind to animals is a necessary inference from observed relations, and this obviates the necessity of a formal exhortation or a cut-and-dried moral.
As a reader, this book is designed to supplement the regular reader of the grade. Common and familiar language is used, but no effort has been made to reduce the expressions to baby-talk, or to construct halting sentences with words of three or four letters only.