ecies by Means of Natural Selection, or the preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life (referred to as the Origin), was already sketched in that notebook. It is important to note that Darwin's thinking at this point was still distinctly teleological in character. He still believed that God had instituted the laws governing reproduction to maintain species in a state of perfect adaptation to their environment.Only after his full appreciation of the struggle for existence did he come to believe that a changed environment disturbs growth to produce random variation. Curiously, Darwin asserts that in originating his theory of evolution he was trying to follow "Baconian principles", that is collect facts before theorizing. Specifically, in his autobiography he states "After my return to England it appeared to me that by following the example of Lyell in Geology, and by collecting all facts which bore in any way on the variation of animals and plants under domestication and nature, some light might perhaps be thrown on the whole subject. My first notebook was opened in July 1837. I worked on true Baconian principles, and without any theory collected facts on a wholesale scale…" However, as his notebooks of the time demonstrate, he was speculating boldly from the very beginning in favor of evolution. In addition, Darwin himself at other times admitted his dislike for the "Baconian method". For instance in one of his correspondences he wrote "How odd it is that any one should not see that all observation must be for or against some view if it is to be of any service". And elsewhere, "No one could be a good observer unless he was an active theorizer". Therefore, a more accurate description of his method would be, "inventing a theory and seeing how many classes of facts the theory could explain". Darwin was fixated upon the "whys" of evolution. He contemplated such questions as "Why is life short? Why does the individual die, a...
