Life of Charles DarwinBettany, G. T. (George Thomas)
Science
Life of Charles Darwin
Bettany, G. T. (George Thomas)
Darwin, Charles, 1809-1882
_The Saturday Review_ was much more moderate, by no means sharing the
anxiety of those who regarded evolutionary theories as hostile to
Christianity. The author is said to have encountered the difficulties
of his theory "with admirable skill and ability," and though _The
Saturday_ remained unconvinced of his general argument, yet it
acknowledged itself "persuaded that natural selection must henceforward
be admitted as the chief mode by which the structure of organised beings
is modified in a state of nature;" and thought it very possible that,
through its agency, considerable groups of nearly allied species might
have been derived from a single progenitor: but there _The Saturday_
stopped, believing in limits to this power.
The second edition of "The Origin of Species," which appeared in
January, 1860, only six weeks after the first, contained but few
alterations; the third, in March, 1861, had received extensive additions
and corrections. The most important of these discussed the so-called
tendency of organisation to advance, and explained the present
coexistence of high and lowly organised forms. A valuable historical
sketch of the modern progress of opinion on the subject, from Lamarck's
time, was prefixed to the book. It was further enlarged in subsequent
editions, as evidences accumulated that various thinkers had
independently adopted the evolution theory, or the more special one of
natural selection. Notable instances of anticipation were those of Dr.
Wells, who, in a paper read before the Royal Society in 1813, but not
published till 1818, had expressed the opinion that all animals tend to
vary; that agriculturists improve breeds by selection; and that what
they do by art "seems to be done with equal efficacy, though more
slowly, by nature, in the formation of varieties of mankind." He then
goes on to exemplify the survival of the fittest, though in other words.
Mr. Patrick Matthew, in 1831, published a work on "Naval Timber and
Arboriculture," in which he expressed, in scattered passages, a view
nearly resembling Darwin's.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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