On the Genesis of Species |
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5th edition action of Natural acts admit affinity amongst Animals and Plants annelids appear assertion believe birds body bones brought forward butterflies cause Cetacea chapter colour complete conceivable conception contended creation creatures Darwin Darwinian Darwinian theory Descent difficulties distinct evidence evolution evolved example existence explain external facts favour fishes force fortuitous gemmules giraffe habits harmony Herbert Spencer homology hypothesis Ibid ICHTHYOSAURUS individual innate power inorganic insects instances internal intuitions kind laws less limbs machairodus Malay Archipelago mammals manifestation marsupial matter mimicry minute mode modification moral Natural Selection objections observes organic forms organic world Origin of Species Pangenesis peculiar perissodactyle phenomena Plants under Domestication PLESIOSAURUS possessed present preserved priori probable produced Professor Huxley pterodactyles race regard remarkable reptiles resemblance result says seems serial homology sexual selection Silurian similar structure supposed tend tendency theism theory of Natural tion Ungulata vertebrate Wallace wing
Popular passages
Page 300 - The teleological and the mechanical views of nature are not, necessarily, mutually exclusive. On the contrary, the more purely a mechanist the speculator is, the more firmly does he assume a primordial molecular arrangement of which all the phenomena of the universe...
Page 268 - Thus the consciousness of an Inscrutable Power manifested to us through all phenomena, has been growing ever clearer ; and must eventually be freed from its imperfections. The certainty that on the one hand such a Power exists, while on the other hand its nature transcends intuition and is beyond imagination, is the certainty towards which intelligence has from the first been progressing.
Page 260 - There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved.
Page 198 - In the future I see open fields for far more important researches. Psychology will be securely based on the foundation already well laid by Mr. Herbert Spencer, that of the necessary acquirement of each mental power and capacity by gradation.
Page 204 - ... that there exists a being in whom all the excellences which the highest human mind can conceive, exist in a degree inconceivable to us, I am informed that the world is ruled by a being whose attributes are infinite, but what they are we cannot learn, nor what are the principles of his government, except that the highest human morality which we are capable of conceiving does not sanction them; convince me of it and I will bear my fate as I may.
Page 260 - sees grandeur in the " view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one :"* ' Derivation ' sees, therein, a narrow invocation of a special miracle and an unworthy limitation of creative power, the grandeur of which is manifested daily, hourly, in calling into life many forms, by conversion of physical and chemical into vital modes of force, under as many diversified conditions of the requisite elements to be so combined. ' Natural...
Page 214 - I believe that the experiences of utility organized and consolidated through all past generations of the human race, have been producing corresponding nervous modifications, which, by continued transmission and accumulation, have become in us certain faculties of moral intuition — certain emotions responding to right and wrong conduct, which have no apparent basis in the individual experiences of utility.
Page 204 - I will call no being good, who is not what I mean when I apply that epithet to my fellow-creatures ; and if such a being can sentence me to hell for not so calling him, to hell I will go.
Page 25 - That there are many remarkable phenomena in organic forms upon which 'Natural Selection' throws no light whatever, but the explanations of which, if they could be attained, might throw light upon specific origination.
Page 311 - formed man of the dust of the earth and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul.