34 THE METHOD OF DARWIN. 



with his own practice. He combined in him- 

 self the qualities of both Brown and his own 

 grandfather. His works are a series of models 

 of the scientific method, because of the rare 

 and happy combination of minute and accurate 

 observation and daring speculation followed by 

 ruthless testing and pruning of his hypotheses. 

 He thought it worth while to notice and pene- 

 trate into the meaning of the most insignifi- 

 cant fact, and was capable of sweeping the 

 whole earth for evidence in support of his 

 largest theories. He could take the time to 

 count twenty thousand seeds of Ly thrum sali- 

 caria; 1 and his prophetic philosophical eye 

 led him to exclaim, "What a science Natural 

 History will be when we are in our graves, 

 when all the laws of change are thought one of 

 the most important parts of Natural History ! ". 2 

 At various times and under various circum- 

 stances Darwin expressed fragmentary opinions 

 concerning what constitutes scientific method, 

 but never tried to make a complete statement of 

 it. His notion of what the method is, is shown 

 mostly by what he said concerning "deduc- 

 tion." For instance, concerning Bastian's 

 work, he said, in a letter to Wallace, "I am 



1 Different Forms of Flowers, etc., p. 189. 



2 Life and Letters, Vol. I. p. 439. 



