126 THE REV. J. G. WOOD. 



whatever as to the quality of his work, and I say little 

 of its results ; and I endeavour merely to put forward 

 one or two obvious facts, to which I cannot without 

 affectation pretend to be blind, and which, in such a 

 work as the present, could scarcely be passed over with- 

 out mention. All that I claim for my father is that he 

 did what no man had attempted to do before him ; that, 

 alike by pen and by word of mouth, he gave the greater 

 part of his life to the popularisation of natural history ; 

 and that in that task he succeeded. Whether he was a 

 man of science, or not, I do not pretend to say ; as to 

 whether he was even a remarkable writer, I do not offer 

 an opinion. And if, in what I have said, there be any- 

 thing which good taste would have left unwritten, I can 

 only deeply regret it, and ask for the indulgence of my 

 readers. 



