PREFATORY NOTE 



TO THE SECOND EDITION. 



MY DEAR HUXLEY : In publishing a new 

 edition of this collection of essays, which has 

 been for some time out of print, I have taken oc- 

 casion to add three articles not heretofore re- 

 printed. It was with some hesitation that in 

 originally making up the book I included the ar- 

 ticle on " Mr. Buckle's Fallacies," which was the 

 first writing of mine that ever appeared in print, 

 and naturally bears many marks of immaturity 

 in thought and style. It was partly because so 

 many friends had expressed a desire to see it 

 again that I decided to include it ; partly also be- 

 cause it is to me associated with the beginnings 

 of two of the most treasured friendships of my 

 life, first with Herbert Spencer, and afterwards, 

 through a somewhat longer but still unmistaka- 

 ble chain of causation, with yourself. Those 

 noctes coenceque Deum of the old times in London 



