100 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 



deal of time over the general arrangement of the 

 matter. I first make the rudest outline in two or 

 three pages, and then a larger one in several pages, 

 a few words or one word standing for a whole discus- 

 sion or series of facts. Each one of these headings is 

 again enlarged and often transferred before I begin to- 

 write in extenso. As in several of my books facts 

 observed by others have been very extensively used, 

 and as I have always had several quite distinct sub- 

 jects in hand at the same time, I may mention that 

 I keep from thirty to forty large portfolios, in cabinets 

 with labelled shelves, into which I can at once put a 

 detached reference or memorandum. I have bought 

 many books, and at their ends I make an index of all 

 the facts that concern my work ; or, if the book is not 

 my own, write out a separate abstract, and of such 

 abstracts I have a large drawer full. Before begin- 

 ning on any subject I look to all the short indexes 

 and make a general and classified index, and by taking 

 the one or more proper portfolios I have all the infor- 

 mation collected during my life ready for use. 



I have said that in one respect my mind has changed 

 during the last twenty or thirty years. Up to the age 

 of thirty, or beyond it, poetry of many kinds, such as 

 the works of Milton, Gray, Byron, Wordsworth, Cole- 

 ridge, and Shelley, gave me great pleasure, and even 

 as a schoolboy I took intense delight in Shakespeare, 

 especially in the historical plays. I have also said 

 that formerly pictures gave me considerable, and 

 music very great delight. But now for many years 

 I cannot endure to read a line of poetry : I have tried 



