GENERAL DISCUSSIONS. 2 09 



question whether his argument as a whole is 

 sound and carries conviction with it, but simply 

 to repeat that, considering the materials that 

 Darwin had to work with and the difficulties 

 under which he labored, the argument is 

 finished, and will always serve as a type of 

 probable proof. 



Darwin himself has given the reasons for 

 this state of his great discussion. He has com- 

 plained that he must be a very slow thinker; 

 and doubtless the truth in this complaint 

 accounts for the fact that his thinking was 

 always so thorough. He also bewailed the fact 

 that he experienced great difficulty in writing. 1 

 He felt that he had great ability to get things 

 wrong end foremost in his expression, and said 

 that he spent a great deal of time in arranging 

 the matter in his larger works. From one 

 point of view it is a paradox that such a man 

 should accomplish so much that has proved 

 of permanent value. But the lack of natural 

 felicity of expression and inability to think 

 rapidly, together with his persistence, insured 

 him against the vice of saying things nimbly, 

 and furnished the guaranty that whatever he 

 did would be thorough. It is safe to say that 

 a far larger proportion of false and inaccurate 



1 Lifs and Letters, Vol. I. p. 80. 

 14 



