Author's Preface 



NOT iinding the " well-known German scientific 

 journal Kosmos " ^ entered in the British Museum 

 Catalogue, I have presented the Museum with a copy of 

 the number for February 1879, which contains the article 

 by Dr. Krause of which Mr. Charles Darwin has given a 

 translation, the accuracy of which is guaranteed — so 

 he informs us — by the translator's " scientific reputation 

 together with his knowledge of German." - 



I have marked the copy, so that the reader can see at a 

 glance what passages have been suppressed and where 

 matter has been interpolated. 



, I have also presented a copy of " Erasmus Darwin." 

 I have marked this too, so that the genuine and spurious 

 passages can be easily distinguished. 



I understand that both the " Erasmus Darwin " and 

 the number of Kosmos have been sent to the Keeper of 

 Printed Books, with instructions that they shall be at 

 once catalogued and made accessible to readers, and do 

 not doubt that this will have been done before the present 

 volume is pubhshed. The reader, therefore, who may be 

 sufficiently interested in the matter to care to see exactly 

 what has been done will now have an opportunity of 

 doing so. 



October 2S, 18S0. 



^ Preface by Mr. Charles Darwin to " Erasmus Darwin." The 

 Museum has copies of a Kosmos that was pubhshed 1857-60 and then 

 discontinued ; but this is clearly not the Kosmos referred to by Mr. 

 Darwin, which began to appear in 1878. 



* Preface to " Erasmus Darwin." 



xxxvii 



