Before the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Henry Fawcett once defended Charles Darwin against a critic who said Darwin's On the Origin of Species was too theoretical and that he should have just "put his facts before us and let them rest." With this view Darwin disagreed, and he explained why in a letter to Fawcett:
About thirty years ago there was much talk that geologists ought only to observe and not theorize; and I well remember someone saying that at this rate a man might as well go into a gravel-pit and count the pebbles and describe the colours. How odd it is that anyone should not see that all observation must be for or against some view if it is to be of any service! (Quoted in “Colorful Pebbles and Darwin's Dictum: Science is an exquisite blend of data and theory," by Michael Shermer, Scientific American, May, 2001.)
For a brief biography of Charles Darwin, click here. For a brief biography of Henry Fawcett, click here.
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