vi PREFACE. 



worth while to reprint them; and entertain the 

 hope that the story of their origin and early fate 

 may not be devoid of a certain antiquarian inter- 

 est, even if it possess no other. 



In 1854, it became my duty to teach the prin- 

 ciples of biological science with especial reference 

 to paleontology. The first result of addressing 

 myself to the business I had taken in hand, was 

 the discovery of my own lamentable ignorance in 

 respect of many parts of the vast field of knowl- 

 edge through which I had undertaken to guide 

 others. The second result was a resolution to 

 amend this state of things to the best of my 

 ability; to which end, I surveyed the ground; 

 and having made out what were the main posi- 

 tions to be captured, I came to the conclusion that 

 I must try to carry them by concentrating all the 

 energy I possessed upon each in turn. So I set 

 to work to know something of my own knowledge 

 of all the various disciplines included under the 

 head of Biology; and to acquaint myself, at first 

 hand, with the evidence for and against the extant 

 solutions of the greater problems of that science. 

 I have reason to believe that wise heads were 

 shaken over my apparent divagations — now into 

 the province of Physiology or Histology, now into 

 that of Comparative Anatom} T , of Development, of 

 Zoology, of Paleontology, or of Ethnology. But 

 even at this time, when I am, or ought to be, so 

 much wiser, I really do not see that I could have 



