490 THE MAKING OF THE ' OBIGIN ' 
making clearer the true affinities and world-range of disput- 
able genera and species. Complete and accurate classification 
according to nature was the first step towards finding the key 
to it all. 
Thus Darwin, in the act of asking his aid, stimulated his 
native bent. He was encouraged in his incKnation to deal 
with the wider bearings of his observations, which, in Darwin's 
eyes, made his Flora and his letters so different from the works 
of so many other systematists, remarkable for their lack of 
instructive general results. And though special researches 
such as these appeared to distract him from his main work on 
the Southern Floras, yet they shaped his own views and added 
to his reputation. 
I am almost sorry for your eternal additional labours on 
the Galapagos Flora [writes Darwin in September 1846 ; 
but adds emphatically], as yet your work assuredly has not 
been thrown away, as many have referred to your curious 
geographical results on this archipelago. 
Similarly, of a preliminary sketch of his Tasmanian results, 
in 1844 : 
I trust that your sketch will not have cost you ultimately 
loss of time, as, judging by myself, preliminary sketches and 
resketches do much good. . . . Seriously, I almost grieved, 
when I saw the length of your letter, that you should have 
given up so much time to me. Sir William will think me a 
bad friend to you, but anyhow, I trust, the sketch part of 
your geographical results will not turn out lost time. 
These generalisations gave special value to his v»'ork and led 
Darwin to repudiate his description of himself as not possessing 
a philosophic mind, ' one of the greatest falsehoods ever told 
by imphcation ; read your own Galapagos paper and be 
ashamed of yourself ' (the whole passage is given in CD. ii. 
37). In short (March 31, 1845) : 
Nothing would do you so much good as a little vanity, 
and then you would not talk of collecting facts for others, 
when, say just what you please, I am sure no one could put 
them to better use than yourself. 
