compile
an almost complete record of Mr. Darwin's work in a series of letters
now published for the first time. We have, however, in a few instances,
repeated paragraphs, or in one or two cases whole letters, from the
"Life and Letters," where such repetition seemed necessary for the sake
of clearness or continuity.

Our two volumes contain practically all the matter that it now
seems desirable to publish. But at some future time others may find
interesting data in what remains unprinted; this is certainly true of a
short series of letters dealing with the Cirripedes, which are omitted
solely for want of space. (Preface/1. Those addressed to the late Albany
Hancock have already appeared in the "Transactions of the Tyneside Nat.
Field Club," VIII., page 250.)

We are fortunate in being permitted, by Sir Joseph Hooker and by Mr.
Wallace, to publish certain letters from them to Mr. Darwin. We have
also been able to give a few letters from Sir Charles Lyell, Hugh
Falconer, Edward Forbes, Dr. Asa Gray, Professor Hyatt, Fritz Muller,
Mr. Francis Galton, and Sir T. Lauder Brunton. To the two last named,
also to Mrs. Lyell (the biographer of Sir Charles), Mrs. Asa Gray and
Mrs. Hyatt, we desire to express our grateful acknowledgments.

The present volumes have been prepared, so as to give as full an idea
as possible of the course of Mr. Darwin's work. The volumes therefore
necessarily contain many letters of a highly technical character, but
none, we hope, which are not essentially interesting. With a view to
saving space, we have confined ourselves to elucidating the letters
by full annotations, and have for the same reason--though with some
regret--omitted in most cases the beginnings and endings of the letters.
For the main facts of Mr. Darwin's life, we refer our readers to the
abstract of his private Diary, given in the present volume.

Mr. Darwin generally wrote his letters when he was tired or hurried, and
this often led to the omission of words. We have usually inserted
the articles, and this without any indication of their absence in the
originals. Where there seemed any possibility of producing an alteration
of meaning (and in many cases where there is no such possibility) we
have placed the introduced words in square brackets. We may say once for
all that throughout the book square brackets indicate words not found
in the originals. (Preface/2. Except in a few places where brackets are
used to indicate passages