Introduction 3 



afield, in February 1879 the Germans devoted an entire 

 number of one of their scientific periodicals ^ to the celebra- 

 tion of Mr. Darwin's seventieth birthday. There is no 

 other Englishman now living who has been able to win 

 such a compliment as this from foreigners, who should be 

 disinterested judges. 



Under these circumstances, it must seem the height of 

 presumption to differ from so great an authority, and to 

 join the small band of malcontents who hold that Mr. 

 Darwin's reputation as a philosopher, though it has grown 

 up with the rapidity of Jonah's gourd, will yet not be per- 

 manent. I believe, however, that though we must always 

 gladly and gratefully owe it to Mr. Darwin and Mr. Wallace 

 that the public mind has been brought to accept evolution, 

 the admiration now generally felt for the " Origin of 

 Species " will appear as unaccountable to our descendants 

 some fifty or eighty years hence as the enthusiasm of our 

 grandfathers for the poetry of Dr. Erasmus Darwin does to 

 ourselves ; and as one who has yielded to none in respect 

 of the fascination Mr. Darwin has exercised over him, I 

 would fain say a few words of explanation which may 

 make the matter clearer to our future historians. I do this 

 the more readily because I can at the same time explain 

 thus better than in any other way the steps which led me 

 to the theory which I afterwards advanced in " Life and 

 Habit." 



This last, indeed, is perhaps the main purpose of the 

 earlier chapters of this book. I shall presently give a 

 translation of a lecture by Professor Ewald Hering of 

 Prague, which appeared ten years ago, and which contains 

 so exactly the theory I subsequently advocated myself, 

 that I am half uneasy lest it should be supposed that I 

 knew of Professor Hering's work and made no reference to 

 it. A friend to whom I submitted my translation in MS., 

 asking him how closely he thought it resembled " Life and 

 Habit," wrote back that it gave my own ideas almost in 

 1 Kosmos, February 1879, Leipsic. 



