ch. iv.] REMINISCENCES. 103 



perative, would often say, in a voice of despair, " We really 

 must do these books soon." 



In each book, as he read it, he marked passages bearing on 

 his work. In reading a book or pamphlet, &c.,he made pen- 

 cil lines at the side of the page, often adding short remarks, 

 and at the end made a list of the pages marked. When it 

 was to be catalogued and put away, the marked pages were 

 looked at, and so a rough abstract of the book was made. 

 This abstract would perhaps be written under three or four 

 headings on different sheets, the facts being sorted out and 

 added to the previously collected facts in the different sub- 

 jects. He had other sets of abstracts arranged, not according 

 to subject, but according to the periodicals from which they 

 were taken. When collecting facts on a large scale, in ear- 

 lier years, he used to read through, and make abstracts, in 

 this way, of whole series of journals. 



In some of his early letters he speaks of filling several 

 note-books with facts for his book on species ; but it was 

 certainly early that he adopted his plan of using portfolios, 

 as described in the Recollections.* My father and M. de 

 Candolle were mutually pleased to discover that they had 

 adopted the came plan of classifying facts. De Candolle 

 describes the method in his PJiytologie, and in his sketch of 

 my father mentions the satisfaction he felt in seeing it in 

 action at Down. 



Besides these portfolios, of which there are some dozens 

 full of notes, there are large bundles of MS. marked " used " 

 and put away. He felt the value of his notes, and had a 

 horror of their destruction by fire. I remember, when some 

 alarm of fire had happened, his begging me to be especially 

 careful, adding very earnestly, that the rest of his life would 

 be miserable if his notes and books were destroyed. 



He shows the same feeling in writing about the loss of 

 a manuscript, the purport of his words being, " I have a 

 copy, or the loss would have killed me." In writing a book 

 he would spend much time and labour in making a skeleton 

 or plan of the whole, and in enlarging and sub-classing each 

 heading, as described in his Recollections. I think this 

 careful arrangement of the plan was not at all essential to 

 the building up of his argument, but for its presentment, 



* The racks in -which the portfolios were placed are shown in the illustra- 

 tion at the head of the chapter, in the recess at the right-hand side of the fire- 

 place. 



8 



