_I_ was then (as often
since) the "young man in a hurry": _he_, the painstaking and
patient student seeking ever the full demonstration of the truth
that he had discovered, rather than to achieve immediate personal
fame.
Such being the actual facts of the case, I should have had no
cause for complaint if the respective shares of Darwin and myself
in regard to the elucidation of Nature's method of organic
development had been henceforth estimated as being, roughly,
proportional to the time we had each bestowed upon it when it was
thus first given to the world--that is to say, as twenty years is
to one week. For, he had already made it his own. If the
persuasion of his friends had prevailed with him, and he had
published his theory after ten years'--fifteen years'--or even
eighteen years' elaboration of it--_I_ should have had no part in
it whatever, and _he_ would have been at once recognised as the
sole and undisputed discoverer and patient investigator of this
great law of "Natural Selection" in all its far-reaching
consequences.
Pages:
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185