MENTAL QUALITIES. IO3 



that I have never been able to remember for more 

 than a few days a single date or a line of poetry. 



Some of my critics have said, " Oh, he is a good 

 observer, but he has no power of reasoning ! " I do 

 not think that this can be true, for the ' Origin of 

 Species ' is one long argument from the beginning to 

 the end, and it has convinced not a few able men. 

 No one could have written it without having some 

 power of reasoning. I have a fair share of invention, 

 and of common sense or judgment, such as every 

 fairly successful lawyer or doctor must have, but not, 

 I believe, in any higher degree. 



On the favourable side of the balance, I think that 

 I am superior to the common run of men in noticing 

 things which easily escape attention, and in observing f 

 them carefully. My industry has been nearly as great | 

 as it could have been in the observation and collection / 

 of facts. What is far more important, my love of | 

 natural science has been steady and ardent. / 



This pure love has, however, been much aided by ] 

 the ambition to be esteemed by my fellow naturalists. I 

 From my early youth I have had the strongest desire 

 to understand or explain whatever I observed, that 

 is, to group all facts under some general laws. These 

 causes combined have given me the patience to reflect 

 or ponder for any number of years over any unex- 

 plained problem. As far as I can judge, I am not 

 apt to follow blindly the lead of other men. I have 

 steadily endeavoured to keep my mind free so as to 

 give up any hypothesis, however much beloved (and I 

 cannot resist forming one on every subject), as soon 







