104 REMINISCENCES. [en. iv. 



and for the arrangement of his facts. In his Life of Eras- 

 mus Darwin, as it was first printed in slips, the growth of 

 the book from a skeleton was plainly visible. The arrange- 

 ment was altered afterwards, because it was too formal and 

 categorical, and seemed to give the character of his grand- 

 father rather by means of a list of qualities than as a com- 

 plete picture. 



It was only within the last few years that he adopted a 

 plan of writing which he was convinced suited him best, and 

 which is described in the Recollections; namely, writing a 

 rough copy straight off without the slightest attention to 

 style. It was characteristic of him that he felt unable to 

 write with sufficient want of care if he used his best paper, 

 and thus it was that he wrote on the backs of old proofs or 

 manuscript. The rough copy was then reconsidered, and a 

 fair copy was made. For this purpose he had foolscap 

 paper ruled at wide intervals, the lines being needed to pre- 

 vent him writing so closely that correction became difficult. 

 The fair copy was then corrected, and was recopied before 

 being sent to the printers. The copying was done by Mr. 

 E. Norman, who began this work many years ago when 

 village schoolmaster at Down. My father became so used 

 to Mr. Norman's handwriting, that he could not correct 

 manuscript, even when clearly written out by one of his 

 children, until it had been recopied by Mr. Norman. The 

 MS., on returning from Mr. Norman, was once more cor- 

 rected, and then sent off to the printers. Then came the 

 work of revising and correcting the proofs, which my father 

 found especially wearisome. 



When the book was passing through the " slip " stage he 

 was glad to have corrections and suggestions from others. 

 Thus my mother looked over the proofs of the Origin. In 

 some of the later works my sister, Mrs. Litchfield, did much 

 of the correction. After my sister's marriage perhaps most 

 of the work fell to my share. 



My sister, Mrs. Litchfield, writes : 



" This work was very interesting in itself, and it was 

 inexpressibly exhilarating to work for him. He was so 

 ready to be convinced that any suggested alteration was an 

 improvement, and so full of gratitude for the trouble taken. 

 I do not think that he ever forgot to tell me what improve- 

 ment he thought I had made, and he used almost to excuse 

 himself if he did not agree with any correction. I think I 

 felt the singular modesty and graciousness of his nature 



