78 THE METHOD OF DARWIN. 



investigation, and others are likely to secure 

 priority of publication, there is every tempta- 

 tion to publish prematurely. Priority having 

 been gained by a so called preliminary notice, 

 a large proportion of the subjects are dropped 

 by the original investigators, and let alone by 

 others because they are "old." Time makes 

 investigation easier. Where speed is felt to be 

 necessary, a vast outlay of energy is frequently 

 required to discover what with more time would 

 almost come of itself. With the attention 

 steadily fixed, time brings to bear multitudes 

 of facts that would otherwise be lost. Gaps in 

 the evidence, if filled at all, are too often filled 

 with "necessary inferences" instead of facts. 



There is perhaps no better case on record to 

 illustrate the effect of time on the develop- 

 ment of theory than the " Origin of Species/' 

 Darwin had already long reflected on the sub- 

 ject when he opened his first note-book for 

 facts in 1837; and for more than twenty years 

 thereafter he labored in analyzing and inter- 

 preting the facts of nature by the help of his 

 theory in order to test the latter in all its rela- 

 tions. By carrying on simultaneously several 

 investigations bearing on the general subject, 

 he could let each of his studies drag through 

 many years, and yet was able to accomplish 



