WHAT CONDITIONED THE WORK AND ITS SUCCESS. 193 



power of judging and condemning the thoughts that 

 occurred to him." In fact, Mr. Darwin himself makes a 

 stronger acknowledgment for himself than his son does 

 for him. Even on the last page of the Journal words 

 occur which are an undeniable confession. They are 

 these : " As the traveller stays but a short time in each 

 place, his descriptions must generally consist of mere 

 sketches hence arises, as I have found to my cost, a con- 

 stant tendency to fill up the wide gaps of knowledge, 

 by inaccurate and superficial hypotheses." He writes to 

 Henslow once (i. 189) : " As yet I have only indulged in 

 hypotheses, but they are such powerful ones that I sup- 

 pose, if they were put into action but for one day, the 

 world would come to an end." In 1865 he acknow- 

 ledges to Mr. Huxley that his " Parigenesis " is " a very 

 rash and crude hypothesis," the result of " a passion to 

 try to connect facts by some sort of hypothesis." For 

 very soberest conclusion, let us bear in mind this (ii. 

 108): "I am a firm believer that without speculation 

 there is no good and original observation." 



So much for hypothesis, what we have named bee, and 

 what the " candid reader " will probably find " unfair." 

 Good heavens ! I wonder where that is, whether in 

 man or doctrine, to which at all events I would wish to 

 prove unfair ! Ah ! do I not know that from the 

 moment I am, or wish to prove, unfair, from that 

 moment I fail ? 



We turn to the simplicity that (with the hypothesis) 

 set all in movement. The many striking instances of 

 simplicity on the part of the boy cannot yet have escaped 

 our memory. The tale of the hat, and the shots he was 

 tricked out of; the collecting dead insects and fishing 

 with dead worms ; the remorse of conscience for the 

 puppy he beat; the prayers to be enabled to run in 

 time ; the " fearful reproach " of poco curante that was 



