rly
summer of this year (1894), he left among his papers some notes, made
mostly in the previous winter, for a work which he was intending to
write on the fundamental questions of religion. He had desired that
these notes should be given to me and that I should do with them as I
thought best. His literary executors accordingly handed them over to me,
in company with some unpublished essays, two of which form the first
part of the present volume.

After reading the notes myself, and obtaining the judgement of others in
whom I feel confidence upon them, I have no hesitation either in
publishing by far the greater part of them, or in publishing them with
the author's name in spite of the fact that the book as originally
projected was to have been anonymous. From the few words which George
Romanes said to me on the subject, I have no doubt that he realized that
the notes if published after his death must be published with his name.

I have said that after reading these notes I feel no doubt that they
ought to be published. They claim it both by their intrinsic value and
by the light they throw on the religious thought of a scientific man who
was not only remarkably able and clear-headed, but also many-sided, as
few men are, in his capacities, and singularly candid and open-hearted.
To all these qualities the notes which are now offered to the public
will bear unmistakeable witness.

With more hesitation it has been decided to print also the unpublished
essays already referred to. These, as representing an earlier stage of
thought than is represented in the notes, naturally appear first.

Both Essays and Notes however represent the same tendency of a mind from
a position of unbelief in the Christian Revelation toward one of belief
in it. They represent, I say, a tendency of one 'seeking after God if
haply he might feel after Him and find Him,' and not a position of
settled orthodoxy. Even the Notes contain in fact many things which
could not come from a settled believer. This being so it is natural that
I should say a word as to the way in which I have understood my function
as an editor. I have decided the question of publishing each Note solely
by the consideration whether or no it was sufficiently finished to be
intelligible. I have rigidly excluded any question of my own agreement
or disagreement with it. In the case of one Note in particular, I doubt
whether I should have published it, had it not been that my decided