8o AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 



tests ; but this may probably be the result of mere practice, 

 and of a larger store of knowledge. I have as much difficulty 

 as ever in expressing myself clearly and concisely ; and this 

 difficulty has caused me a very great loss of time ; but it has 

 had the compensating advantage of forcing me to think long 

 and intently about every sentence, and thus I have been led 

 to see errors in reasoning and in my own observations or 

 those of others. 



There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading 

 me to put at first my statement or proposition in a wrong or 

 awkward form. Formerly I used to think about my. sen- 

 tences before writing them down ; but for several years I have 

 found that it saves time to scribble in a vile hand whole pages 

 as quickly as I possibly can, contracting half the words ; and 

 then correct deliberately. Sentences thus scribbled down 

 are often better ones than I could have written deliberately. 



Having said thus much about my manner of writing, I 

 will add that with my large books I spend a good deal of 

 time over the general arrangement of the matter. I first 

 make the rudest outline in two or three pages, and then a 

 larger one in several pages, a few words or one word stand- 

 ing for a whole discussion or series of facts. Each one of 

 these headings is again enlarged and often transferred be- 

 fore I begin to write in extenso. As in several of my books 

 facts observed by others have been very extensively used, 

 and as I have always had several quite distinct subjects in 

 hand at the same time, I may mention that I keep from 

 thirty to forty large portfolios, in cabinets with labelled 

 shelves, into which I can at once put a detached reference 

 or memorandum. I have bought many books, and at their 

 ends I make an index of all the facts that concern my work ; 

 or, if the book is not my own, write out a separate abstract, 

 and of such abstracts I have a large drawer full. Before 

 beginning on any subject I look to all the short indexes and 

 make a general and classified index, and by taking the one 

 or more proper portfolios I have all the information collected 

 during my life ready for use. 



