Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, vol 1 | Page 3

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This etext was prepared by Sue Asscher

THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF CHARLES DARWIN
INCLUDING AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL
CHAPTER
EDITED BY HIS SON
FRANCIS DARWIN

VOLUME I

PREFACE
In choosing letters for publication I have been largely guided by the
wish to illustrate my father's personal character. But his life was so
essentially one of work, that a history of the man could not be written
without following closely the career of the author. Thus it comes about
that the chief part of the book falls into chapters whose titles
correspond to the names of his books.
In arranging the letters I have adhered as far as possible to
chronological sequence, but the character and variety of his researches
make a strictly chronological order an impossibility. It was his habit to
work more or less simultaneously at several subjects. Experimental
work was often carried on as a refreshment or variety, while books
entailing reasoning and the marshalling of large bodies of facts were
being written. Moreover, many of his researches were allowed to drop,
and only resumed after an interval of years. Thus a rigidly
chronological series of letters would present a patchwork of subjects,
each of which would be difficult to follow. The Table of Contents will
show in what way I have attempted to avoid this result.
In printing the letters I have followed (except in a few cases) the usual
plan of indicating the existence of omissions or insertions. My father's
letters give frequent evidence of having been written when he was tired
or hurried, and they bear the marks of this circumstance. In writing to a
friend, or to one of his family, he frequently omitted the articles: these
have been inserted without the usual indications, except in a few

instances, where it is of special interest to preserve intact the hurried
character of the letter. Other small words, such as "of", "to", etc., have
been inserted usually within brackets. I have not followed the originals
as regards the spelling of names, the use of capitals, or in the matter of
punctuation. My father underlined many words in his letters; these have
not always been given in italics,--a rendering which would unfairly
exaggerate their effect.
The Diary or Pocket-book, from which quotations occur in the
following pages, has been of value as supplying a frame-work of facts
round which letters may be grouped. It is unfortunately written with
great brevity, the history of a year being compressed into a page or less;
and contains little more than the dates of the principal events of his life,
together with entries as to his work, and as to the duration of his more
serious illnesses. He rarely dated his letters, so that but for the Diary it
would have been all but impossible to unravel the history of his books.
It has also enabled me to assign dates to many letters which would
otherwise have been shorn of half their value.
Of letters addressed to my father I