ANALOGY. 10 1 



distant and slight evil. Moreover, the fertili- 

 zation of a flower by its own pollen corresponds 

 to a closer form of interbreeding than is pos- 

 sible with ordinary bisexual animals; so that 

 an earlier result might have been expected." 



He had carried the deduction far enough to 

 warrant an effort to verify it, but was deterred 

 by analogical reasoning from pursuing the 

 matter further. Had he clung to his general 

 theory and the special facts to be explained 

 under it, he would, as he said himself, have 

 reached an early result. The analogy, if it 

 had served a good purpose, ought to have led 

 him to reason that since continuous interbreed- 

 ing is harmful among animals, although there 

 are no special adaptations to prevent it, or to- 

 encourage the opposite, then, surely, the harm- 

 ful effects of close breeding and the benefits of 

 cross-fertilization ought to be very marked in 

 plants, with their striking adaptation for cross- 

 fertilization. The analogy had clearly led him 

 astray ; and he was finally brought back to the 

 subject by a different route. 



" I was at last led to make the experiments 

 recorded in the present volume from the follow- 

 ing circumstance. For the sake of determin- 

 ing certain points with respect to inheritance, 

 and without any thought of the effects of close 



