George John Romanes

"It will be observed that the title of this volume is "Mental Evolution in Animals." The reasons which have led me to depart from my intention (as expressed in the Preface of "Animal Intelligence") to devote the present essay to mental evolution in man as well as in animals, are given in the introductory chapter. It may appear that in the following pages a somewhat disproportionate amount of space has been allotted to the treatment of Instinct; but, looking to the confusion which prevails with reference to this important branch of psychology in the writings of our leading authorities, I have deemed it desirable to consider the subject exhaustively. It is, I think, desirable briefly to explain the circumstances under which I have been enabled to produce so much hitherto unpublished material from the MSS of the late Mr. Darwin, and also to state the extent to which I have availed myself of such of this unpublished material as came into my hands. As I have already explained, in the Preface of "Animal Intelligence," Mr. Darwin himself gave me all his MSS relating to psychological subjects, with the request that I should publish any parts of them that I chose in my works on Mental Evolution. But after his death I felt that the circumstances with reference to this kind offer were changed, and that I should scarcely be justified in appropriating so much material, the value of which had become enhanced. I therefore published at the Linnean Society, and with the consent of Mr. Darwin's family, as much of this material as could be published in a consecutive form; this is the chapter which was intended for the "Origin of Species," and which, for the sake of reference, I have added as an Appendix to my present work. For the rest, the numerous disjointed paragraphs and notes which I found among the MSS I have woven into the text of this book, feeling on the one hand that they were not so well suited to appear as a string of disconnected passages, and on the other hand that it was desirable to publish them somewhere. I have gone through all the MSS carefully, and have arranged so as to introduce every passage in them of any importance which I find to have been hitherto unpublished. In no case have I found any reason to suppress a passage, so that the quotations which I have given may be collectively regarded as a full supplementary publication of all that Mr. Darwin has written in the domain of psychology"--Preface. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).

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