IV PREFACE. 



seem examples of the most special and varied contrivance 

 reconciled to the simplicity of a single general law. Many 

 readers will be inclined to whisper to themselves at many 

 passages, ' we never thought of that before/ ' we never looked 

 at the matter in that light/ * how curious if after all it should 

 be true/ ' it looks less wicked and silly than we used to think 

 it.' Whether the theory itself be right or wrong, the general 

 effect of the book which describes it can only be to quicken 

 the minds of its readers, to enlarge for them the circle of 

 ideas, to open up before them new lines of thought and 

 enquiry, to let them see the whole face of nature teeming 

 with mysteries and revelations, an inexhaustible vintage 

 for the human reason to gather in. 



Such being the character of Mr. Darwin's own Work, 

 the handful of Essays and Letters contained in the present 

 volume, supporting the same views by almost the same 

 arguments, may seem a superfluous contribution to the 

 literature of the question. And so it would be if all who 

 condemn and ridicule Darwinism would be at the pains to 

 study Mr. Darwin's Work. But opinions passed upon it 

 and allusions made to it in common conversation and in 

 popular lectures often testify to nothing except supreme 

 ignorance of its general merits. To judge by such hearsay, 

 one might believe that Mr. Darwin had lived all his life shut 

 up in a dove-cote, and never seen or examined any other 

 living creature than a pigeon. Another estimate will dismiss 

 the whole subject, scathed with indignant laughter, by simply 

 explaining, that, according to this fatuous theory, man is 

 descended from a monkey. Naturally no well-minded per- 

 sons will consent to be pithecoid in origin, whether they 

 know what pithecoid means or not ; still less can a theory be 

 accepted as moral and good, according to which, as some will 

 tell you, the giraffe lengthened its neck by a series of stretch- 

 ings, and the elephant acquired a trunk by continually 



