70 THE REV. J. G. WOOD. 



to the first volume, the work is, and was meant to be, 

 " rather anecdotal and vital than merely anatomical and 

 scientific." For my father always held that the object 

 of the true zoologist is " to search into the essential 

 nature of every being, to investigate, according to his 

 individual capacity, the reason why it should have been 

 placed on earth, and to give his personal service to 

 his Divine Master in developing that nature in the 

 best manner and to the fullest extent." And there- 

 fore he relegated the whole of the classificatory 

 portion, consisting of an elaborate compendium of 

 generic distinctions, to the end of each volume, in 

 order that it might in no way interfere with the more 

 popular portion of the work. 



This Natural History, however, was not the only 

 work undertaken during the years 1859 62, for besides 

 various magazine articles, some of them of no incon- 

 siderable length, the third of the " Common Objects " 

 Series " Common Objects of the Microscope " made 

 its appearance in 1861. In this little book, however 

 almost for the only time in the whole of his career 

 my father availed himself to some extent of the ser- 

 vices of a collaborateur. Not in the actual composi- 

 tion of the book, for he wrote every word himself; 

 neither was it a mere hasty compilement to suit the 

 needs of the moment. But the great and incessant 

 pressure upon his time led him to relegate the selection 

 of the objects to be described to other hands ; and so 

 this part of the work was entrusted to Mr. Tuffen 

 West, who employed the greater part of a year in col- 



