PREFACE. 



IN the Preface to the Third Edition of my 

 ' Doctrine of Descent and Darwinism,' which ap- 

 peared in 1883, I quoted the opinion of a famous 

 lawyer as to the worthlessness of science, not 

 with the intention of refuting it, but gave it as 

 an example of the incredible naivete with which 

 eminent representatives of certain pronounced 

 religious tendencies confront the work and results 

 of natural science. Not long afterwards I was 

 asked by a well-known man whether my lectures 

 on zoology, at the university, treated of Darwinism 

 as well. What my answer was is known to all 

 those who have taken any interest in the ' theory 

 of descent.' To those who have an understanding 

 of the subject, and of the aims of a scientific 

 interpretation of the living world (which is, in 



