some attention. When he has done this, he will know what Newton
meant by saying he felt like a child playing with pebbles upon the
seashore.

One word more upon this note before I leave it. Mr. Darwin speaks of
Isidore Geoffroy's history of opinion as "excellent," and his account
of Buffon's opinions as "full." I wonder how well qualified he is to
be a judge of these matters? If he knows much about the earlier
writers, he is the more inexcusable for having said so little about
them. If little, what is his opinion worth?

To return to the "brief but imperfect sketch." I do not think I can
ever again be surprised at anything Mr. Darwin may say or do, but if
I could, I should wonder how a writer who did not "enter upon the
causes or means of the transformation of species," and whose opinions
"fluctuated greatly at different periods," can be held to have
treated evolution "in a scientific spirit." Nevertheless, when I
reflect upon the scientific reputation Mr. Darwin has attained, and
the means by which he has won it, I suppose the scientific spirit
must be much what he here implies. I see Mr. Darwin says of his own
father, Dr. Robert Darwin of Shrewsbury, that he does not consider
him to have had a scientific mind. Mr. Darwin cannot tell why he
does not think his father's mind to have been fitted for advancing
science, "for he was fond of theorising, and was incomparably the
best observer" Mr. Darwin ever knew. {33a} From the hint given in
the "brief but imperfect sketch," I fancy I can help Mr. Darwin to
see why he does not think his father's mind to have been a scientific
one. It is possible that Dr. Robert Darwin's opinions did not
fluctuate sufficiently at different periods, and that Mr. Darwin
considered him as having in some way entered upon the causes or means