The present edition of Romanes' Thoughts on Religion is issued inresponse to a request which has been made with some frequency of latefor very cheap reprints of standard religious and theological works.
The late Mr. George John Romanes—the author within the last few yearsof Darwin and After Darwin, and of the Examination ofWeismannism—occupied a distinguished place in contemporary biology.But his mind was also continuously and increasingly active on theproblems of metaphysics and theology. And at his death in the earlysummer of this year (1894), he left among his papers some notes, mademostly in the previous winter, for a work which he was intending towrite on the fundamental questions of religion. He had desired thatthese notes should be given to me and that I should do with them as Ithought best. His literary executors accordingly handed them over to me,in company with some unpublished essays, two of which form the firstpart of the present volume.
After reading the notes myself, and obtaining the judgement of others inwhom I feel confidence upon them, I have no hesitation either inpublishing by far the greater part of them, or in publishing them withthe author's name in spite of the fact that the book as originallyprojected was to have been anonymous. From the few words which GeorgeRomanes said to me on the subject, I have no doubt that he realized thatthe notes if published after his death must be published with his name.
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