About ourselves

Needham, James G.

"This is a book about ourselves, individually and collectively. We are something more ethereal than "featherless bipeds" and something more substantial than "such stuff as dreams are made on." Substance and action at least are observable and a vast deal of knowledge has become available in recent years to those who seek it. I have endeavored to assemble and to present in simple untechnical form some of the basic zoological facts that must be taken into account in any penetrating study into the nature of human kind. This book is an exposition of human nature, without any plans for its improvement. The lack of such plans is due to my fear that Mother Nature would not be very regardful of them; that she will go right along making our successors after her regular patterns, and that they will continue to behave very much as we have done. I present herewith a very condensed statement of...