1879.] ERASMUS DARWIN. 395 



miliar, and treated with unabated vigor and freshness, may 

 well have attracted many readers. A reviewer remarks : " In 

 the eyes of most men ... the earthworm is a mere blind, 

 dumb, senseless, and unpleasantly slimy annelid. Mr. Darwin 

 undertakes to rehabilitate his character, and the earthworm 

 steps forth at once as an intelligent and beneficent person- 

 age, a worker of vast geological changes, a planer down of 

 mountain sides. ... a friend of man. . . and an ally of the 

 Society for the preservation of ancient monuments." The St. 

 James's Gazette ', October 17, 1881, pointed out that the teach- 

 ing of the cumulative importance of the infinitely little is the 

 point of contact between this book and the author's previous 

 work. 



One more book remains to be noticed, the ( Life of Eras- 

 mus Darwin.' 



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

 scientific work of Erasmus Darwin, appeared in the evolu- 

 tionary journal, * Kosmos.' The number of ' Kosmos ' in 

 question was a " Gratulationsheft," * or special congratulatory 

 issue in honour of my father's birthday, so that Dr. Krause's 

 essay, glorifying the older evolutionist, was quite in its place. 

 He wrote to Dr. Krause, thanking him cordially for the hon- 

 our paid to Erasmus, and asking his permission to publish f 

 an English translation of the Essay. 



His chief reason for writing a notice of his grandfather's 

 life was " to contradict flatly some calumnies by Miss Sew- 

 ard." This appears from a letter of March 27, 1879, to n ^ s 

 cousin Reginald Darwin, in which he asks for any documents 

 and letters which might throw light on the character of Eras- 

 mus. This led to Mr. Reginald Darwin placing in my father's 

 hands a quantity of valuable material, including a curious 



* The same number contains a good biographical sketch of my father, 

 of which the material was to a large extent supplied by him to the writer, 

 Professor Preyer of Jena. The article contains an excellent list of my 

 father's publications. 



f The wish to do so was shared by his brother, Erasmus Darwin the 

 younger, who continued to be associated with the project. 



