INTRODUCTION. 7 



demic way, tax the faculties of a Newton or a 

 Kelvin. I once knew a learned o-entleman — no 

 longer young — who felt it advisable to add pro- 

 ficiency in dancing to his many attainments. Not 

 wishing to make himself ridiculous by practising 

 before others, he shut himself up in his study and 

 bent his whole soul upon a handbook professing 

 to teach such accomplishments. He had abilities 

 of no mean order, and had already gained fame 

 as a physicist ; but after puzzling out — with the 

 aid of intricate diagrams — all the mysteries of the 

 quadrille, he stuck at the pons asinorum (or shall 

 we say chdvaux de frise ?) of the lancers, and con- 

 fessed that the whole thing was utterly beyond 

 him. What would have happened if, at the risk 

 of a mental breakdown, he had persevered to the 

 end and had then appeared in a ballroom, I will 

 leave to the imagination of my readers. 



But if there are a good many amateur natural- 

 ists whose knowledge of evolution is too imperfect 

 to be of any practical value, there are probably 

 still more who may be said to possess none at all. 

 If any one doubts this statement, let him com- 

 mence a discussion on Darwinism with any aver- 

 age schoolboy, sportsman, or country parson, and 

 it will meet with abundant support. I mention 



