210 THE METHOD OF DARWIN. 



statements and arguments with fatal flaws in 

 them are made by writers who express them- 

 selves easily, than by writers whose rhetorical 

 inability compels them to be painstaking. 

 When the expression is laboriously evolved by 

 an intellect that is otherwise strong, the thought 

 comes during the process to be regarded from 

 more points of view. In details there is greater 

 assurance of accuracy, and the proper relative 

 importance is more likely to be assigned to the 

 different phases of the truth. Given two intel- 

 lects equally conscientious, the slower moving 

 and more deliberate one will always hit upon 

 more phases of the truth than the quicker one. 

 Darwin attributed the success of the " Origin 

 of Species" to the way in which it was devel- 

 oped. Only when he had spent a number of 

 years in investigation, after he had got hold of 

 the theory of natural selection, did he allow 

 himself, in 1842, to draw up a brief thirty-five 

 page sketch of it. In 1844 he wrote a larger 

 sketch of two hundred and thirty pages. Then 

 followed years of laborious investigation, the 

 vast results of which were cast into an abstract 

 which, if it had been published, would have 

 been a very large work. Upon the urgent 

 advice of his friends, Lyell and Hooker, he 

 decided not to delay publication any longer; 



