PREFACE. 



HAVE much pleasure in giving the following PEDIGREE AND 

 BLAZON OF THE COAT OF ARMS OF THE DARWINIAN FAMILY. 



The antiquity of this very ancient race is beyond dispute, its genealogy 

 having been furnished by the present head of the family himself, so that 

 its authenticity and its genuineness are both alike established. 



It traces its origin to an ancestor who lived, or vegetated, it is not quite 

 certain which, billions upon billions of years before the " year one " of our 

 records. It is briefly given, as above stated, on page 20 of the present work, 

 from which it is clearly shown that neither families of Norman, or Saxon, 

 or even, before them, of Ancient British origin, are fit to be named in the 

 same day with it for precedence. 



It is also extremely interesting to notice that a coat of arms was borne 

 by the first man so, though not quite correctly, strictly speaking, to call 

 him although it appears that he wore no other clothes of any kind. 



Of still more importance is it to note that all the doubts which have, 

 heretofore existed as to the origin of language, are hereby and for ever set 

 at rest. 



For though it is, indeed, true that in our times mottoes may be changed 

 at pleasure, while shields and crests can not, yet it need not for a moment 

 be supposed that such was the case in that early period whereunto no re- 

 cord or " memory of man runneth." 



Hence. " I believe," " we may believe," " I cannot doubt," " I can indeed 

 hardly doubt," by the " use of the Imagination," or. in other words, it is 

 certain, from the mottoes borne by this most ancient family, that both 

 Latin and English were, in common parlance, the speech of the great 

 ancestor of the Darwinian race. 



BLAZON OF THE COAT OF ARMS OF THE DARWINIAN FAMILY. 

 Party per pale, quarterly; first and fourth, azure ( ; 'the infinite azure of 

 the past," Tyndall,) a demi-semi-savage, sable, standing on vacancy, 

 decorated with the Order of the Garter on the right knee, and with a long 

 tail curled up ; over it a scroll with the legend, " I could a tale unfold? 

 and the motto, "Won TALI auxilio" Second and third, erminois, a 

 mermaid, vert, in full ball costume, crined, hair dressed a la Eugenie, and 

 wreathed with an embroidered sash or girdle marked with the words, 

 " Desinit inpiscem mul'tcr formosa superne."* 



