our consideration will never fall into serious error about another
writer without hastening to make a public apology as soon as he
becomes aware of what he has done.

Reflecting upon the substance of what I have written in the last few
pages, I thought it right that people should have a chance of knowing
more about the earlier writers on evolution than they were likely to
hear from any of our leading scientists (no matter how many lectures
they may give on the coming of age of the "Origin of Species") except
Professor Mivart. A book pointing the difference between
teleological and non-teleological views of evolution seemed likely to
be useful, and would afford me the opportunity I wanted for giving a
resume of the views of each one of the three chief founders of the
theory, and of contrasting them with those of Mr. Charles Darwin, as
well as for calling attention to Professor Hering's lecture. I
accordingly wrote "Evolution, Old and New," which was prominently
announced in the leading literary periodicals at the end of February,
or on the very first days of March 1879, {35b} as "a comparison of
the theories of Buffon, Dr. Erasmus Darwin, and Lamarck, with that of
Mr. Charles Darwin, with copious extracts from the works of the three
first-named writers." In this book I was hardly able to conceal the
fact that, in spite of the obligations under which we must always
remain to Mr. Darwin, I had lost my respect for him and for his work.

I should point out that this announcement, coupled with what I had
written in "Life and Habit," would enable Mr. Darwin and his friends
to form a pretty shrewd guess as to what I was likely to say, and to
quote from Dr. Erasmus Darwin in my forthcoming book. The
announcement, indeed, would tell almost as much as the book itself to
those who knew the works of Erasmus Darwin.