viii PREFACE. 



should add in many directions to the sum of exact know- 

 ledge, and at the same time have so little in common with 

 his contemporaries as my father had. I hope that in the 

 course of this narrative the salient points of a remarkable 

 mental constitution, of a peculiarly isolated mind, will be 

 found to have been so illuminated as to permit the reader 

 to form for himself a portrait of the man. I have not con- 

 cealed or manipulated any of his peculiarities. My only 

 endeavour has been to present my father as he was, and in 

 so doing I have felt sure of his own approval. He utterly 

 despised that species of modern biography which depicts 

 what was a human being as though transformed into the 

 tinted wax of a hairdresser's block. He used to speak 

 with strong contempt of "goody-goody lives of good men.' 

 He was careless of opinion, and he lived rigidly up to a 

 private standard of his own. I have taken it to be the 

 truest piety to represent him exactly as I knew him and 

 have found him. 



For various statements in the earlier pages I am 

 indebted to the still unpublished autobiography of my 

 grandfather, Mr. Thomas Gosse, and to the memory of my 

 venerable uncle, Mr. William Gosse. Among those whom 

 I have to thank for their kindness in helping me to pro- 

 duce this volume, I must mention two friends in particular, 

 Mr. Francis Darwin, F.R.S., who has allowed me to print 

 a number of very interesting letters from his father ; and 

 Mr. Arthur E. Shipley, Fellow of Christ's College, Cam- 

 bridge, who has very kindly revised the zoological 

 portions of the text. 



