Mr. Darwin and *' Evolution," etc. 39 



intend that he remembered the arrangements having been 

 made before the beginning of May — his use of the word 

 " announced," instead of " advertised," being an accident ; 

 but let this pass. 



Some time after Mr. Darwin's work appeared in Novem- 

 ber 1879, 1 got it, and looking at the last page of the book, 

 I read as follows : — 



" They " (the elder Darwin and Lamarck) " explain the 

 adaptation to purpose of organisms by an obscure impulse 

 or sense of what is purpose-like ; yet even with regard to 

 man we are in the habit of saying, that one can never know 

 what so-and-so is good for. The purpose-like is that which 

 approves itself, and not always that which is struggled for by 

 obscure impulses and desires. Just in the same way the 

 beautiful is what pleases." 



I had a sort of feeling as though the writer of the above 

 might have had " Evolution, Old and New," in his mind, 

 but went on to the next sentence, which ran — 



" Erasmus Darwin's system was in itself a most significant 

 first step in the path of knowledge which his grandson has 

 opened up for us, but to wish to revive it at the present day, 

 as has actually been seriously attempted, shows a weakness 

 of thought and a mental anachronism which no one can 

 envy." 



" That's me," said I to myself promptly. I noticed 

 also the position in which the sentence stood, which made 

 it both one of the first that would be likely to catch a 

 reader's eye, and the last he would carry away with him. 

 I therefore expected to find an open reply to some parts of 

 " Evolution, Old and New," and turned to Mr. Darwin's 

 preface. 



To my surprise, I there found that what I had been 

 reading could not by any possibility refer to me, for the 

 preface ran as follows : — 



" In the February number of a well-known German 

 scientific journal, Kosmos,'^ Dr. Ernest Krause published a 



1 How far Kosmos was " a well-known " journal, I cannot 

 determine. It had just entered upon its second year. 



