Brother of the succeeding and in the same line of life, but of superior accomplishments, especially literary and scientific, which served him well in editing the publications issued by the firm; was the author of a great many works of a historical, biographical, and scientific, as well as literary interest; wrote the "Vestiges of Creation," a book on evolutionary lines, which made no small stir at the time of publication, 1844, and for a time afterwards, the authorship of which he was slow to own (1802-1871).