WILLIAM BENJAMIN CARPENTER. 



THE Essays contained in this volume represent chiefly the 

 later phases of their writer s thoughts on the problems 

 concerned with the interpretation of nature and man. 

 Some of the conclusions which they embody he believed 

 to be of high importance in the guidance of life ; they were 

 the result of long observation and reflection, and in some 

 cases differed widely from the ideas which his early educa 

 tion and his first studies had led him to adopt. It is the 

 aim of this sketch to indicate some of the processes which 

 contributed to this change, and to present, as briefly as 

 possible, the connection between Dr. Carpenter s widely 

 varied work and the personality from which his many- 

 sided energy flowed out. The long list of writings which 

 bear his name exhibits an extraordinary range of labour ; 

 and the historians of different branches of science will 

 come upon the traces of his activity in fields that arc rarely 

 cultivated by the same hand. It is not now desired to 

 estimate the precise value of his numerous contributions to 

 knowledge, but rather to show what were the hidden pur 

 poses and guiding aims of his life, what were the gifts of 

 mind and heart which he brought to their fulfilment, and 

 how these took outward shape and form. 



