The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection: Or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, 6th Edition — John Shaqi
The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection: Or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, 6th EditionDarwin, Charles
History
The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection: Or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, 6th Edition
Darwin, Charles
Evolution (Biology); Natural selection
Professor Owen, in 1849 (“Nature of Limbs”, page 86), wrote as follows:
“The archetypal idea was manifested in the flesh under diverse such
modifications, upon this planet, long prior to the existence of those
animal species that actually exemplify it. To what natural laws or
secondary causes the orderly succession and progression of such organic
phenomena may have been committed, we, as yet, are ignorant.” In his
address to the British Association, in 1858, he speaks (page li) of
“the axiom of the continuous operation of creative power, or of the
ordained becoming of living things.” Further on (page xc), after
referring to geographical distribution, he adds, “These phenomena shake
our confidence in the conclusion that the Apteryx of New Zealand and
the Red Grouse of England were distinct creations in and for those
islands respectively. Always, also, it may be well to bear in mind that
by the word ‘creation’ the zoologist means ‘a process he knows not
what.’” He amplifies this idea by adding that when such cases as that
of the Red Grouse are “enumerated by the zoologist as evidence of
distinct creation of the bird in and for such islands, he chiefly
expresses that he knows not how the Red Grouse came to be there, and
there exclusively; signifying also, by this mode of expressing such
ignorance, his belief that both the bird and the islands owed their
origin to a great first Creative Cause.” If we interpret these
sentences given in the same address, one by the other, it appears that
this eminent philosopher felt in 1858 his confidence shaken that the
Apteryx and the Red Grouse first appeared in their respective homes “he
knew not how,” or by some process “he knew not what.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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