P R E F A C E . 



THE following pages were written some mouths ago, and 

 their publication has been delayed by circumstances to which 

 I need not further allude. I offer the book now to the 

 consideration of the public, with a perfect consciousness 

 that it has many defects for which I must claim indul- 

 gence. The subject is one of deep importance; much more 

 so indeed than would appear to many, from a thoughtless 

 perusal of the work criticised. I trust I have dealt with 

 the book fairly. I entirely disclaim all personal feeling 

 in the strong language I have sometimes felt bound to 

 use. No one has derived greater pleasure than I have in 

 past days from the study of Mr. Darwin's other works, 

 and no one has felt a greater degree of regret that he 

 should have imperiled his fame, by the publication of 



his treatise upon the " Origin of Species." 



C. 11. B. 



Colchester, Sep. Uth, 1860. 



