little into the German language, the opportunity seemed favourable
for going on with it and becoming acquainted with Professor Hering's
lecture. I therefore began to translate his lecture at once, with
the kind assistance of friends whose patience seemed inexhaustible,
and found myself well rewarded for my trouble.

Professor Hering and I, to use a metaphor of his own, are as men who
have observed the action of living beings upon the stage of the
world, he from the point of view at once of a spectator and of one
who has free access to much of what goes on behind the scenes, I from
that of a spectator only, with none but the vaguest notion of the
actual manner in which the stage machinery is worked. If two men so
placed, after years of reflection, arrive independently of one
another at an identical conclusion as regards the manner in which
this machinery must have been invented and perfected, it is natural
that each should take a deep interest in the arguments of the other,
and be anxious to put them forward with the utmost possible
prominence. It seems to me that the theory which Professor Hering
and I are supporting in common, is one the importance of which is
hardly inferior to that of the theory of evolution itself--for it
puts the backbone, as it were, into the theory of evolution. I shall
therefore make no apology for laying my translation of Professor
Hering's work before my reader.

Concerning the identity of the main idea put forward in "Life and
Habit" with that of Professor Hering's lecture, there can hardly, I
think, be two opinions. We both of us maintain that we grow our
limbs as we do, and possess the instincts we possess, because we
remember having grown our limbs in this way, and having had these
instincts in past generations when we were in the persons of our