he knew that this would be upsetting to
a lot of people uh... and he sat on it for
twenty years and he just did research
and he gathered more and more data he
wanted to make sure that he could defend
this idea but
the reason that he sat on it for
such a long time was one of the
reasons was his wife
whom he dearly loved and she was
devoutly religious and he did not want
to cause her anymore
uh...
didn't he was concerned for her
religious sensitivity and
and also people that he knew his friends
and other scientists he also knew
of people who had literally been jailed
for departing from certain scriptural
understandings in england and he was
concerned about that
uh... but he did give his wife
um...
permission to publish this if he should
die
uh... publish it after his death
uh... but he went ahead and published
it when when he realized that he was
about to be scooped by alfred russel
wallace who had figured it out on his
own but but there were he was
concerned about the feelings of people
that he did not want to upset
this excerpt is brought to you by the
massachusetts school of law
