6 DAKWINIANISM. 



unmeaning rhyme " ? A mighty master ! And that it 

 was Byron said so ! 



But assuming now, then, the course of Dr. Erasmus's 

 fortunes as a writer before the public to have been, so 

 far, sufficiently suggested, we come to what we have 

 here specially in mind, that last act in their regard 

 which has been already mentioned that operation, 

 namely, on the part of Dr. Krause which was radically 

 to change what had been the fixed opinion of most 

 people till far on in the century. 



In the autobiography of Mr. Darwin communicated by 

 his son, we have (Life and Letters, vol. i. p. 97) this: 

 "In 18791 had a translation of Dr. Ernst Krause's Life 

 of Erasmus Darwin published, and I added a sketch of 

 his character and habits from material in my possession. 

 Many persons have been much interested by this little 

 Life, and I am surprised that only 800 or 900 copies were 

 sold." At p. 218, again, of the third volume of the same 

 work we have the following on the part of Mr. Francis : 



" In February 1879 an essay by Dr. Ernst Krause on the scientific 

 work of Erasmus Darwin appeared in the evolutionary journal, 

 Kosmos. The number of Kosmos in question was a Gratiilationshefl, 

 or special congratulatory issue in honour of my father's birthday, 

 PO that Dr. Krause's essay, glorifying the older evolutionist, was 

 quite in its place. He wrote to Dr. Krause, thanking him cordially 

 for the honour paid to Erasmus, and asking his permission to publish 

 an English translation of the essay. The wish to do so was shared by 

 his brother, Erasmus Darwin the younger, who continued to be 

 associated with the project. His chief reason for writing a notice of 

 his grandfather's life was ' to contradict flatly some calumnies by Miss 

 Seward.' Dr. Krause's contribution formed the second part of the 

 Life of Erasmus Darwin, my father supplying a preliminary notice. 

 This expression on the title-page is somewhat misleading ; my 

 father's contribution is more than half the book. Work of this kind 

 was new to him, and, as he said himself, quite beyond his tether." 



As we see, Dr. Krause's work is a "glorifying" of 

 Erasmus Darwin into, as has been already said, the 



