decided in the stating. This, as I have already implied, is
probably the reason why those who have a vested interest in Mr.
Darwin's philosophical reputation have avoided stating it.

It may be said that, seeing the result is a joint one, inasmuch as
both "res" and "me," or both luck and cunning, enter so largely into
development, neither factor can claim pre-eminence to the exclusion
of the other. But life is short and business long, and if we are to
get the one into the other we must suppress details, and leave our
words pregnant, as painters leave their touches when painting from
nature. If one factor concerns us greatly more than the other, we
should emphasize it, and let the other go without saying, by force
of association. There is no fear of its being lost sight of;
association is one of the few really liberal things in nature; by
liberal, I mean precipitate and inaccurate; the power of words, as
of pictures, and indeed the power to carry on life at all, vests in
the fact that association does not stick to the letter of its bond,
but will take the half for the whole without even looking closely at
the coin given to make sure that it is not counterfeit. Through the
haste and high pressure of business, errors arise continually, and
these errors give us the shocks of which our consciousness is
compounded. Our whole conscious life, therefore, grows out of
memory and out of the power of association, in virtue of which not
only does the right half pass for the whole, but the wrong half not
infrequently passes current for it also, without being challenged
and found out till, as it were, the accounts come to be balanced,
and it is found that they will not do so.

Variations are an organism's way of getting over an unexpected
discrepancy between its resources as shown by the fly-leaves of its