Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802) was an accomplished scientist and inventor, one of the most successful doctors in eighteenth-century England, and a best-selling poet. He anticipated a theory of biological evolution a full 70 years before his grandson Charles's On the Origin of Species, and his poetry had a marked influence on Wordsworth and other Romantics. This rare collection—beautifully illustrated by William Blake, Henry Fuseli, and others—is newly introduced by Martin Priestman, and will be of great interest to historians of science and literary specialists.
