"once upon a time" a woman's rights movement sprang up in bee-hives
and ant-hills which ended in reducing the males to a very
unimportant position and in limiting the number of the fully
developed females? Are we to expect that the "strong-minded" women
arising among us are the forerunners of a "neuter" order and the
heralds of a corresponding change in human society?

"It is full of theories," says the author, writing of his book;
modestly adding, "I trust not unsupported by facts." And so
naturally does he dovetail the two together that the theories often
seem portions of the facts. On all kinds of subjects suggestive
reasons are proposed:--why the scarlet-runners which flowered so
profusely in his garden never produced a single pod; why the banana
and sugar-cane are probably not indigenous to America; why gold
veins grow poorer as they descend into the earth; why whirlwinds
rotate in opposite directions in the two hemispheres; why the
earthenware vessels of the Indians are rounded at the bottom and
require to be placed in a little stand--on all the varied matters
that come under his observant eyes he has something interesting to
say. You learn how the natives obtain sugar, palm-wine, and rubber;
what is the use of the toucan's huge beak, and how plants secure
the fertilisation of their flowers. You watch the tricks of the
monkey, the humming-bird's courtship, the lying in wait of the
alligator, and all the ceaseless activity of the forest--that
forest so monotonous in its general features, but fascinating
beyond measure when the varied life-histories working out within it
are realised--and you share in the keen joy of the naturalist who
has written with such simple eloquence of the beauty, the wonder,
and the mystery of the natural world.