DARWIN'S VIEWS OF METHOD. 29 



strong by nature. His isolation from other 

 scientific men and from books doubtless also 

 developed in him the habit of using all the 

 facts that presented themselves, and directly 

 and indirectly getting at their significance. 

 He could not lay his hands on ready-made 

 explanations of the facts that came before him, 

 and was compelled to explain them himself. 

 He said of himself, " I think I am superior to 

 the common run of men in noticing things 

 which easily escape attention, and in observ- 

 ing them carefully. . . . From rny earliest 

 youth I have had the strongest desire to under- 

 stand or explain whatever I observed, that 

 is, to group all facts under some general laws." 1 

 These natural traits were of necessity strength- 

 ened and developed by their incessant exercise 

 on the voyage. 



Another prominent trait in Darwin was the 

 accuracy with which he made his observations 

 and experiments. " He saved a great deal of 

 time through not having to do things twice." 

 And he always "wished to learn as much as 

 possible from an experiment, so that he did 

 not confine himself to observing the single 

 point to which the experiment was directed, 

 and his power of seeing a number of things 



1 Life and Letters, Vol. I. p. 83. 



UNIVEHSIT 



