114 THE REV. J. G. WOOD. 



world, I believe, lie rejected it in toto. But latterly, I 

 fancy although he could never be induced to talk upon 

 the subject, beyond admitting that, in his opinion, the 

 theory was in no way opposed to religion he some- 

 what modified his convictions, holding that evolution 

 was no doubt responsible for much in the way of animal 

 development, without granting to it the almost limitless 

 power which many naturalists claim. But it was far 

 from easy to gather his views regarding a subject upon 

 which he was so reticent, and upon which he evidently 

 considered that it was as yet premature to pronounce a 

 decided opinion. 



The last of my father's works published during his 

 lifetime was the " Handy Natural History/' a book 

 written specially for boys, and produced under the 

 auspices of the Religious Tract Society. It treats of 

 the vertebrate animals only, and has no higher aim 

 than to give such a pleasant readable account of the 

 animals which it describes as to lead the youthful 

 reader to seek other sources of information also, and to 

 persevere in the study which he has taken up. The 

 book appeared in 1886. 



Of posthumous works there are three, only two of 

 which are as yet actually published. One is " The 

 Brook and its Banks," originally written in the form of 

 a series of connected articles for the Girl's Own 

 Paper, which has now, at the time of writing (October, 

 1889), just appeared in volume form. It gives a short, 

 brightly written account of the different creatures, 

 aquatic and terrestrial, which are to be found in or 



