PREFACE xi 



notions, tearing them up, and re-writing them, and a hundred other 

 troubles, would all have been the most wearisome work had it not 

 been backed by the stimulus and enthusiasm roused by the convic- 

 tion that there was something interesting to be told. If the reader 

 should feel a hundredth part of the interest, in reading these pages, 

 that I felt in writing them, I am sure he ought to be a happy 

 individual. 



In these pages there may be some things which scientists may 

 have either overlooked as unimportant, or which they may not 

 have cared to tackle, appearing to them as insoluble. 



I have also attempted to develop particular points in the sub- 

 theories of the more general theory or doctrine of evolution. As 

 Professor Huxley is stated to have declared at Oxford not long 

 ago,^ even if Darwinism were swept away it would leave evolution 

 untouched. The doctrine of ' creation by the method of evolution ' 

 has replaced all other doctrines, and it cannot be upset by mortals, 

 for it is based on the every-day experience that a mother pro- 

 creates children, and these other children, and these others, and 

 so forth. No one yet has even attempted to upset that fact 

 of nature. 



The study of the coloration of mammals is an intricate one ; 

 and in the various parts of this discussion repetitions could 

 hardly be avoided ; but although wearisome to the expert, the 

 general reader, who may not be very conversant with the facts 

 of evolution and natural selection — should he care to study this 

 part of modern philosophy — may derive benefit from these 



' After the Inaugural Address of Lord Salisbury to the British Association, 

 8th August 1894. 



