2 THE COMING [CH. 



about ? What manner of men were they who were 

 the leaders in this great movement? What the 

 influences that led them to discard the old views and 

 adopt new ones? And, under what circumstances 

 were they able to produce the works which so 

 profoundly affected the opinions of the day ? These 

 are the questions with which I propose to deal in the 

 following pages. 



It has been my own rare good fortune to have 

 enjoyed the friendship of all the great leaders in this 

 important movement of Huxley, Hooker, Scrope, 

 Wallace, Lyell and Darwin and, with some of them, 

 I was long on terms of affectionate intimacy. From 

 their own lips I have learned of incidents, and 

 listened to anecdotes, bearing on the events of 

 a memorable past. Would that I could hope to 

 bring before my readers, in all their nobility, a vivid 

 picture of the characteristics of the men to whom 

 science and the world owe so much ! 



For it is not only by their intellectual greatness 

 that we are impressed. Every man of science is 

 proud, and justly proud, of the grandeur of character, 

 the unexampled generosity, the modesty and sim- 

 plicity which distinguished these pioneers in a great 

 cause. It is unfortunately true, that the votaries of 

 science like the cultivators of art and literature 

 have sometimes so far forgotten their high vocation, 

 as to have been more careful about the priority 



