...morally progressive state that the history of evolution exemplified and, ultimately, produced. For "as natural selection works solely by and for the...corporeal and mental endowments will tend to progress toward perfection."54 The moral character of nature's actions in regard to her own creations is whispered,...

...existence. In the closing pages of The Origin of Species, he even declares that natural selection 'works by and for the good of each being, all corporeal and mental endowments will tend to progress towards perfection'.14 But Darwin stopped short of a law of progressive development. He repeatedly criticised...

...conditions. Darwin's conclusions in terms of the nature of species were quite optimistic. Since he thought "natural selection works solely by and for the good of each being," he could claim that "all corporeal and mental endowments will tend to progress towards perfection....

...the whole world. Hence we may look with some confidence to a secure future of equally inappreciable length. And as natural selection works solely by and...towards perfection. It is interesting to contemplate an entangled bank, clothed with many plants of many kinds, with birds singing on the bushes, with various...

...broken, and that no cataclysm has desolated the whole world. Hence we may look with some confidence to a secure future of great length. And as natural selection...endowments will tend to progress towards perfection ... There is a grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers having been breathed by the Creator...

...broken, and that no cataclysm has desolated the whole world. Hence, we may look with some confidence to a secure future of great length. And as natural selection...corporeal and mental endowments will tend to progress toward perfection. It is interesting to contemplate a tangled bank, clothed with many plants of many...

...vorsichtigem Optimismus: "Hence we may look with some confidence to a secure future of equally inappreciable length. And as natural selection works solely by and...and mental endowments will tend to progress towards perfetion."11 Man sieht: Darwin lieferte nur das abstrakte Vorstellungsmodell, das Lytton mit einem...

...will then truly give what may be called the plan of creation."14 The plan, he adds, is benevolent: "And as natural selection works solely by and for...corporeal and mental endowments will tend to progress toward perfection."15 In a way, this plan is better than the one described in Genesis. There God began...

...3738 This solution is opposed to the evolutionary one, which insists on ultimate progress, and claims "as natural selection works solely by and for the...and mental endowments will tend to progress towards perfeclion." Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection, ed. JW Burrow (New...

...(1859), in fact, culminates on a ideological note, comforting its readers with the consolation that, "as natural selection works solely by and for the...corporeal and mental endowments will tend to progress toward perfection" (489; 428). 8 Gertrude Himmelfarb points out that Huxley later applauded the teleological...