Charles Darwin |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
acceptance adapted admirable Alfred Russel Wallace already ancestors animals and plants Beagle biological biologists birds Buffon cause century Charles Darwin conception conclusion creation Darwin's mind Darwinian descent with modification distinct doctrine doubt early earthworm edition energy England Erasmus Darwin everywhere evolution evolutionary movement evolutionism evolutionist extinct fact Fertilisation final fittest flowers forms fresh genius geological gradually Herbert Spencer Hooker human Huxley hypothesis idea immense insects intellect interest Josiah Wedgwood Lamarck lancelet less Lyell males Malthus mammals ment minute monkeys natural selection naturalist never observations once organic organisation Origin of Species peculiar philosophical possession present principle produced profound publication published race result Robert Waring Darwin says scientific sexual selection single slow slowly speculation struggle for existence survival teleological theory of natural thinkers thought tion treatise tropical truth uniformitarian universal vast vegetable Vestiges of Creation Wallace Wedgwood whole worms young Zoonomia
Popular passages
Page 169 - Earthworms, though in appearance a small and despicable link in the chain of Nature, yet, if lost, would make a lamentable chasm.
Page 60 - On my return home, it occurred to me, in 1837, that something might perhaps be made out on this question by patiently accumulating and reflecting on all sorts of facts which could possibly have any bearing on it. After five years...
Page 53 - Seeing every height crowned with its crater, and the boundaries of most of the lava-streams still distinct, we are led to believe that within a period, geologically recent, the unbroken ocean was here spread out. Hence, both in space and time, we seem to be brought somewhat near to that great fact — that mystery of mysteries — the first appearance of new beings on this earth.
Page 62 - The English intelligence in particular shows itself as a rule congenitally incapable of appreciating the superior logical certitude of the deductive method. Englishmen will not even believe that the square on the hypotenuse is equal to the squares on the containing sides until they have measured and weighed, as well as they are able by rude experimental devices, a few selected pieces of rudely shaped rectangular paper.
Page 111 - These laws, taken in the largest sense, being Growth with Reproduction ; Inheritance which is almost implied by reproduction; Variability from the indirect and direct action of the conditions of life, and from use and disuse...
Page 175 - ... things, and his piety, and the serenity of his countenance, and his sweetness, and his disregard of empty fame, and his efforts to understand things...
Page 50 - This wonderful relationship in the same continent between the dead and the living, will, I do not doubt, hereafter throw more light on the appearance of organic beings on our earth and their disappearance from it than any other class of facts.
Page 53 - The natural history of these islands is eminently curious, and well deserves attention. Most of the organic productions are aboriginal creations, found nowhere else; there is even a difference between the inhabitants of the different islands; yet all show a marked relationship with those of America, though separated from that continent by an open space of ocean, between 500 and 600 miles in width.
Page 44 - Delight itself, however, is a weak term to express the feelings of a naturalist who, for the first time, has wandered by himself in a Brazilian forest. The elegance of the grasses, the novelty of the parasitical plants, the beauty of the flowers, the glossy green of the foliage, but above all the genoral luxuriance of the vegetation, filled me with admiration.