It is also probable that Romanes felt the difficulty arising from the
cruelty of nature less, as he was led to dwell more on humanity as the
most important part of nature, and perceived the function of suffering
in the economy of human life (pp. 142, 154): and also as he became more
impressed with the positive evidences for Christianity as at once the
religion of sorrow and the revelation of God as Love (pp. 163, ff.). The
Christian Faith supplies believers not only with an argument against
pessimism from general results, but also with such an insight into the
Divine character and method as enables them at least to bear hopefully
the awful perplexities which arise from the spectacle of individuals
suffering.

In the last year or two of his life he read very attentively a great
number of books on 'Christian Evidences,' from Pascal's _Pensées_
downwards, and studied carefully the appearance of 'plan' in the
Biblical Revelation considered as a whole. The _fact_ of this study
appears in fragmentary remarks, indices and references, which George
Romanes left behind him in note-books. The _results_ of it will not be
unapparent in the following Notes, which, I need to remind my readers,
are, in spite of their small bulk, the sole reason for the existence of
this volume.

In reading these I can hardly conceive any one not being possessed with
a profound regret that the author was not allowed to complete his work.
And it is only fair to ask every reader of the following pages to
remember that he is reading, in the main, incomplete notes and not
finished work. This will account for a great deal that may seem sketchy
and unsatisfactory in the treatment of different points, and also for
repetitions and traces of inconsistency. But I can hardly think any one