vi PREFACE 



half century, on the variations forming the 

 material out of which the steps of evolutionary 

 progress have been supposed to be built. 



The influence of Darwin's personality upon the 

 intellectual revolution of the past fifty years is 

 considered in the second Section. The wide- 

 spread misunderstanding of the changes which 

 Darwin describes in his own mind, and the 

 consequent injustice to scientific men generally, 

 and especially to Darwin himself, not only form 

 the subject of argument and protest in this 

 Section, but also occupy nearly all the brief third 

 Section, part of the seventh, and the whole of 

 Appendix C. 



The unfortunate misinterpretations referred to 

 above require, for their complete and final refuta- 

 tion, the collection from Darwin's correspondence 

 of a large number of passages bearing upon 

 health. These, placed together, may convey to 

 the hasty reader an entirely wrong impression of 

 Darwin's heroic spirit, and I therefore trust 

 that the words on p. 216 will be remembered 

 whenever such passages may be read. 



In the fourth Section the relationship of Darwin 

 to the two ancient English Universities, and 

 especially to his own University of Cambridge, is 

 very briefly considered. 



The fifth Section is concerned with one of the 

 first and still perhaps the most striking of the 



