On the wonderful Letters of Note blog, this caught my fancy. It is an excerpt from a letter from Charles Darwin. It was not approach to collecting and generalisation especially. How many smatterers and wandering collectors are there online who make the loose speculations Mr D abhors? Well, one here …
I must be allowed to put my own interpretation on what you say of “not being a good arranger of extended views” which is, that you do not indulge in the loose speculations so easily started by every smatterer & wandering collector. I look at a strong tendency to generalize as an entire evil.
[via Kottke]
Anyone who is interested can read the full text of the letter on the Darwin Corresponence Project website at
http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/darwinletters/calendar/entry-729.html