Editors' Note to Mother and Teacher.—A little child is interested, first of all, in the world outside of himself; but parts of himself seem external. A baby is surprised that he cannot pick up his own great toe and put it into his mouth. By and by he realizes all his complex little self, and uses every member intelligently. Often, before he can talk plain, he has some sense of the mystery of life, in himself, his playmates, his bird and his dog. Later, he recognizes that the flower and the tree are alive, too. He asks endless questions about life, its nature and origin. These questions are so hard to answer that even men of science did not think they could be answered, until very recently. To the very oldest and wisest the secret of life is, and perhaps must always remain, a mystery. But any child old enough to put a little brown seed into the ground, with confidence that a flower will grow from it, or who sees a downy chicken or crying bird come from a shell, has a natural curiosity about them that should be and can be satisfied.

He cannot understand all that is known of life, any more than he can understand all of Arithmetic. But he can comprehend that all life begins with seeds and eggs—that life began, on our earth, ages and ages ago, in simple seed-like forms. These were alive because they were able to grow, to change, and to make other living things like themselves. Here we have traced the story of life, first of plants, then of animals, from the lowest, simplest forms to the highest and most complex. So far as the editors are aware, this is the first attempt ever made, to present Biology, or the science of life, to little children. But, with the viewpoint that the curiosity and understanding of children are, after all, within narrow limits, the matter became surprisingly simple. The stories are as fascinating as fairy tales. They open up to the child, a new world of wonders ; a world of intelligent plan, of order, of beauty and of the brotherhood of living things. They teach reverence, sympathy, and a sense of the worth and sacredness of all life.

Before beginning to read these stories with the children, the teacher or parent should turn back and read, for herself, the very clear and full article on Biology in the first volume. A comparatively new science, Biology binds Botany, Zoology and Human Physiology together. The article on Geology should then be read, to get the order in which living forms, in plants and animals, appeared on our earth, as revealed by fossils in rock layers.