XVI 



Preface 



in a note to Professor Dendy, and a letter to Mr. 

 Charles Douglas. 



The first, dated June 17, 1915, is a request for 

 a Table at the Marine Biological Laboratory at 

 Plymouth for August. " I wish," he writes, " to 

 make one or two drawings and some observations 

 on the habits of Carcinus maenas for the purpose 

 of my new book appearing in the autumn." 



I imagine that he intended to support his general 

 belief in the part obscurely played in evolution by 

 the will and intelligence of living things, with re- 

 cords drawn from a close and intimate study of 

 the habits of a particular animal. 



The second is a description of a paper which he 

 sent to Mr. Douglas, March 10, 1915, with a view to 

 its publication in the " Transactions of the Highland 

 and Agricultural Society." " The greater part of 

 it," he writes, " is a lecture which I gave to a com- 

 bined meeting of the Scientific and Agricultural 

 Societies in the University of Aberdeen. It con- 

 tains in crude form ideas which I hope to express 

 better in about two chapters of a book I hope to 

 have ready by September." 



The extract in question is printed (vide infra, 

 p. 90) in an Appendix immediately after the un- 

 finished fragment of " An Introduction to a Biology," 

 and I have added to it some notes of a lecture de- 

 livered in June, 1915, which illustrate in a technical 

 way one important point raised in the extract. I 

 had also intended to include in this Appendix a 

 letter to M. Bergson, and a reply from him of 

 December, 1912, which touch upon the intended 

 subject-matter of the book. My brother's letter is 



