INTRODUCTORY. 7 



suggestive predecessor in every respect of his more 

 illustrious grandson. That, too, as we have seen, or as 

 has been said, is no drawback to the satisfaction of both 

 the younger Darwins (Charles and his brother) in a 

 rehabilitation at length of the grandfather in whom, for 

 the family and themselves, they entertained so great but 

 troubled an interest. However much he might be shown 

 to have anticipated Charles, Charles in the end could 

 not be supposed likely to suffer; and meanwhile the 

 grandfather would be restored to his proper place in the 

 republic of letters, the rather now, too, that the reflec- 

 tion from Charles would, presumably, only co-operate in 

 the result. As is said also, a certain confutation of Miss 

 Seward is, in the desired restoration and rehabilitation, 

 another, further, and most important element. That 

 word " calumnies " is a strong word, and if Miss Seward 

 has really been guilty of such enormities, it would be 

 well if, in the interest of the family, she were once for 

 all exposed. Mr. Francis Darwin, in whom as a judge 

 of character and as an honourable English gentleman 

 we may put implicit confidence, has been already quoted 

 in regard to an " exaggeration " on the part of Miss 

 Seward of " faults " really " to some extent characteristic 

 of the man." Probably it is only to some such extent 

 that he conceives the lady to have " misrepresented 

 Erasmus Darwin's character." At all events, it seems 

 not impossible that a reader nowadays of both books, 

 Miss Seward's and Mr. Darwin's (Dr. Krause's), may find 

 it not quite easy, on the surface, to believe the lady to 

 have sinned further, in great part perhaps, than in the 

 frailties that may beset any mere human being who under- 

 takes to write the life of another with whom he has been 

 intimate. Even for Charles it is scarcely natural to 

 suppose a burden graver than this to underlie his 

 warning that " everything which Miss Seward says must 



