The Darwinian Theory of the Transmutation of Species |
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Page 3
... favoured us , we must observe , that there is enveloped in it a contradiction , concealed in artful words . ' The term Variety , ' we are told , ' is given to less distinct and more fluctuating forms ? ' There- fore Species is more ...
... favoured us , we must observe , that there is enveloped in it a contradiction , concealed in artful words . ' The term Variety , ' we are told , ' is given to less distinct and more fluctuating forms ? ' There- fore Species is more ...
Page 49
... favoured races " in the struggle for life , " seems so simple , when once clearly stated , and so consonant with known facts and re- ceived principles , that they have difficulty in conceiving how it can constitute a great step in the ...
... favoured races " in the struggle for life , " seems so simple , when once clearly stated , and so consonant with known facts and re- ceived principles , that they have difficulty in conceiving how it can constitute a great step in the ...
Page 122
... favoured nature , then it will only be able to effect a difference of variety . If the crossings with the original Species are in any way prevented , the favoured Variety necessarily becomes Species , by continuing to transform itself ...
... favoured nature , then it will only be able to effect a difference of variety . If the crossings with the original Species are in any way prevented , the favoured Variety necessarily becomes Species , by continuing to transform itself ...
Page 123
... favoured regions , of a greater superiority relatively to the gorilla , than the white man is relatively to the negro : but that Species has disappeared before man , as the red skins of America disappear before the European colonies ...
... favoured regions , of a greater superiority relatively to the gorilla , than the white man is relatively to the negro : but that Species has disappeared before man , as the red skins of America disappear before the European colonies ...
Page 125
... favoured regions ' ! < An incidental argument introduced by M. Trémaux , * Ces seules observations nous montrent quelles voies a dû prendre le règne de l'intelligence . ' Lorsque l'on arrive à l'homme , chez lequel tout se fait par ...
... favoured regions ' ! < An incidental argument introduced by M. Trémaux , * Ces seules observations nous montrent quelles voies a dû prendre le règne de l'intelligence . ' Lorsque l'on arrive à l'homme , chez lequel tout se fait par ...
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Common terms and phrases
able according acknowledged action advance advantage ages animals appear arrangement beauty become bees beginning believe birds blood body bones called cause certain character common condition considered continually course created creation creatures Darwin difficulty direction distinct earth effected evidence existence explain expressed exterminated fact favoured fishes formation forms geology give habits hand human ignorance imagination improvement individual instance instinct intellect known learned less light living lower matter means millions modification Natural Selection never object observed organic origin passage perfect period plants present principle produced progenitor progress proof proved question race reason remarks result says School seems seen Silurian soil species sterility structure struggle succession suppose term Theory things thousand tion transformation Transmutation true turn varieties whole
Popular passages
Page 20 - And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
Page 20 - And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
Page 371 - A few naturalists, endowed with much flexibility of mind, and who have already begun to doubt the immutability of species, may be influenced by this volume; but I look with confidence to the future, to young and rising naturalists, who will be able to view both sides of the question with impartiality.
Page 348 - Slow though the process of selection may be, if feeble man can do much by his powers of artificial selection, I can see no limit. to the amount of change, to the beauty and infinite complexity of the coadaptations between all organic beings, one with another and with their physical conditions of life, which may be effected in the long course of time by nature's power of selection.
Page 7 - In short, we shall have to treat species in the same manner as those naturalists treat genera, who admit that genera are merely artificial combinations made for convenience. This may not be a cheering prospect ; but we shall at least be freed from the vain search for the undiscovered and undiscoverable essence of the term species.
Page 232 - the recognition of an ideal Exemplar for the Vertebrated Animals proves that the Knowledge of such a being as Man must have existed before Man appeared. For the Divine mind which planned the Archetype also foreknew all its modifications. The Archetypal idea was manifested in the flesh, under divers modifications, upon this planet, long prior to the existence of those animal species that actually exemplify it.
Page 70 - Under changed conditions of life, it is at least possible that slight modifications of instinct might be profitable to a species ; and if it can be shown that instincts do vary ever so little, then I can see no difficulty in natural selection preserving and continually accumulating variations of instinct to any extent that was profitable. It is thus, as I believe, that all the most complex and wonderful instincts have originated.
Page 61 - The similar framework of bones in the hand of a man, wing of a bat, fin of the porpoise, and leg of the horse, — the same number of vertebrae forming the neck of the giraffe and of the elephant, — and innumerable other such facts, at once explain themselves on the theory of descent with slow and slight successive modifications.
Page 1 - These facts, as will be seen in the latter chapters of this volume, seemed to throw some light on the origin of species — that mystery of mysteries, as it has been called by one of our greatest philosophers.
Page 45 - It has been said that I speak of natural selection as an active power or Deity ; but who objects to an author speaking of the attraction of gravity as ruling the movements of the planets ? Everyone knows what is meant and is implied by such metaphorical expressions; and they are almost necessary for brevity.