AUTHORITIES USED, COMPILATION, ETC. 153 



despise and laugh at myself as a compiler." But the 

 best proof of the nature of his proceedings proper, com- 

 pilation namely, lies in his own special description of 

 them 



" In July (1837) I opened my first note-book for facts in relation 

 to the Origin of Species, and never ceased working for the next 

 twenty years " "From September 1854 I devoted my whole time 

 to arranging my huge pile of notes " " I collected facts on a whole- 

 sale scale, by printed inquiries, by conversation with breeders and 

 gardeners, and by extensive reading ; when I see the list of books 

 of all kinds which I read and abstracted, including whole series of 

 journals and transactions, I am surprised at my industry" "In 

 1 856 I began to write out my views, on a scale three or four times 

 as extensive as that which was afterwards followed in my Origin of 

 Species ; yet it was only an abstract of the materials which I had 

 collected " " Had I published on the scale in which I began to 

 write, the book would have been four or five times as large as 

 the Origin" (and yet have remained, as said, "itself only an 

 ' abstract ' "). " An immense number of facts collected from various 

 sources " " In several of my books, facts observed by others have 

 been very extensively used " " I keep from thirty to forty large 

 portfolios, in cabinets with labelled shelves" "I have bought 

 many books, and at their ends I make an index of all the facts that 

 concern my work" "Of abstracts I have a large drawer full." 

 These extracts are from the so-called " Autobiographical Chapter ; " 

 and all through the three volumes confirmatory expressions, direct 

 and indirect, occur. Even as late as May 1880 (iii. 333) we have 

 this : " Making notes on separate pieces of paper, I keep several 

 scores of large portfolios, arranged on very thin shelves about two 

 inches apart, and each shelf has its proper name or title ; and I can 

 thus put every memorandum into its proper place." We recollect, 

 too, how, in regard to indexes, and in this direction generally, he 

 put Buckle to profit: "I was very glad to learn from him his 

 system of collecting facts." A compiler could but with some eager- 

 ness hail a compiler. Mr. Francis Darwin, too, in his Reminiscences, 

 gives us much information to the same effect (i. 150-153). 



Now, no doubt it belongs to a compiler both carefully 

 to collect his facts and equally carefully to sift them ; 

 nor is Mr. Darwin without testimony to himself in either 



