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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.