Introduction 1 1 



said to have made any real advance on his predecessors." ^ 

 The article is in a high degree unsatisfactory, and betrays 

 at once an amount of ignorance and of perception which 

 leaves an uncomfortable impression. 



If this is the state of things that prevails even now, it 

 is not surprising that in i860 the general public should, 

 with few exceptions, have known of only one evolution, 

 namely, that propounded by Mr. Darwin. As a member 

 of the general public, at that time residing eighteen miles 

 from the nearest human habitation, and three days' 

 journey on horseback from a bookseller's shop, I became 

 one of Mr. Darwin's many enthusiastic admirers, and 

 wrote a philosophical dialogue (the most offensive form, 

 except poetry and books of travel into supposed unknown 

 countries, that even literature can assume) upon the 

 " Origin of Species." This production appeared in the 

 Press, Canterbur}^, New Zealand, in 1861 or 1862, but I 

 have long lost the only copy I had. 



1 Ibid. 



