I may add that by no one can the perusal of the Essays be more vividly
appreciated than by the writer of these lines. It was my privilege for
forty years to possess the intimate friendship of Charles Darwin and to be
his companion during many of his working hours in Study, Laboratory, and
Garden. I was the recipient of letters from him, relating mainly to the
progress of his researches, the copies of which (the originals are now in
the possession of his family) cover upwards of a thousand pages of
foolscap, each page containing, on an average, three hundred words.

That the editorship of these Essays has been entrusted to a Cambridge
Professor of Botany must be gratifying to all concerned in their production
and in their perusal, recalling as it does the fact that Charles Darwin's
instructor in scientific methods was his lifelong friend the late Rev. J.S.
Henslow at that time Professor of Botany in the University. It was owing
to his recommendation that his pupil was appointed Naturalist to H.M.S.
"Beagle", a service which Darwin himself regarded as marking the dawn of
his scientific career.

Very sincerely yours,

J.D. HOOKER.


II. DARWIN'S PREDECESSORS.

By J. ARTHUR THOMSON.
Professor of Natural History in the University of Aberdeen.

In seeking to discover Darwin's relation to his predecessors it is useful