594 POSTSCRIPT. 



adopt the brief egotism of the first pronoun. In this last 

 volume he uses the thu-d person by preference. Thus, a 

 want of literary uniformity is further added to any dis- 

 crepancies arising out of the progressive nature of scien- 

 tific knowledge, and the successive dates of writing. This 

 may be held a fault of some literary magnitude ; and it 

 stands not alone. Indeed, the author may freely acknow- 

 ledge that he feels no care about literary style in writings 

 intended for scientific uses. Accuracy in fact rather than 

 accuracy in words, correctness of ratiocination much more 

 than correctness of composition, have been his uppermost 

 wishes while writing the Cybele. 



That such wishes have been altogether successfully 

 carried into efi'ect, he does not pretend. He never yet 

 re-read in print aught written by himself, without a 

 decided conviction that it might have been much better 

 done, — better planned, and better worked out. This not 

 very pleasant reflection may perhaps be attributed in part 

 to the newness of the subjects which have most occupied 

 his attention; and for which there existed no ready-made 

 models, to be adopted or improved upon. As the ' united 

 wisdom of the realm ' can never pass a new Act of Parlia- 

 ment, without shortly finding need for another " Act to 

 amend an Act passed," &c. So, — to compare little things 

 with large, — it seems to be only in ordinary keeping with 

 the early imperfectness of human efforts, that first books 

 on a subject should soon be found susceptible of amend- 

 ment. 



If the ' Geographie Botanique ' by De CandoUe had 

 preceded the earlier volumes of the Cybele, some differ- 

 ence might likely have appeared in the formula of species- 

 distribution used in those volumes. — If the views of 

 Darwin, on the mode in which varieties may supplant 

 their ancestral species, had been earlier explained in 



