The first letter of the Roman alphabet, and hence the place where the systematic reader and the author of an encyclopedia first meet. It is therefore the place where the reader is urged not to judge this book by its first letter(s) – just as it shouldn't be judged by its cover. Rather, continue to read further down, ‘alphabetically’ as it were, or browse. You can do this randomly, or by following the links connecting the entries in this book.

Thus, you can go from here to *Darwin the person (a.k.a. *CD), or to a *darwin, the unit of evolutionary change. (Note the subtle introduction of ‘a,’ the indefinite article, also much used by CD). Or, if you don't already know, you can find out what a *chrestomathy is, or look at the references, either to see if you are cited (you might be if you are an ichthyologist, or a Darwin scholar), or to read some of the nasty remarks CD penned about authors such as Chambers, or *Lamarck. Or you can check on the epistemological problem posed by CD's often strange *spelling.

In this book, CD's writings are always in this font; italics are used for emphasis, for Latin or French expressions, and for scientific names (see alsoZZZ).