40 Unconscious Memory 



sketch of the ' Life of Erasmus Darwin,' the author of the 

 ' Zoonomia,' ' Botanic Garden,' and other works. This 

 article bears the title of a ' Contribution to the History of 

 the Descent Theory ' ; and Dr. Krause has kindly allowed 

 my brother Erasmus and myself to have a translation made 

 of it for publication in this country." 



Then came a note as follows : — 



" Mr. Dallas has undertaken the translation, and his 

 scientific reputation, together with his knowledge of German, 

 is a guarantee for its accuracy." 



I ought to have suspected inaccuracy where I found so 

 much consciousness of accuracy, but I did not. However 

 this may be, Mr. Darwin pins himself down with every 

 circumstance of preciseness to giving Dr. Krause's article 

 as it appeared in Kosmos, — the whole article, and nothing 

 but the article. No one could know this better than Mr. 

 Darwin. 



On the second page of Mr. Darwin's preface there is a 

 small- type note saying that my work, " Evolution, Old 

 and New," had appeared since the publication of Dr. 

 Krause's article. Mr. Darwin thus distinctly precludes 

 his readers from supposing that any passage they might 

 meet with could have been written in reference to, or by 

 the light of, my book. If anything appeared condemnatory 

 of that book, it was an undesigned coincidence, and would 

 show how little worthy of consideration I must be when 

 my opinions were refuted in advance by one who could 

 have no bias in regard to them. 



Knowing that if the article I was about to read appeared 

 in February, it must have been published before my book, 

 which was not out till three months later, I saw nothing 

 in Mr. Darwin's preface to complain of, and felt that this 

 was only another instance of my absurd vanity having led 

 me to rush to conclusions without sufficient grounds, — 

 as if it was likely, indeed, that Mr. Darwin should think 

 what I had said of sufficient importance to be affected by 

 it. It was plain that some one besides myself, of whom I 



