On the Genesis of SpeciesD. Appleton, 1871 - 314 pages The author seeks to conciliate the teachings of physical science with the theory of intelligent design. |
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Common terms and phrases
5th edit action of Natural acts admit affinity Animals and Plants annelids apes appear assertion atoms believe BIRD OF PARADISE birds body bones brought forward butterflies cause Cetacea chapter color complete conceivable conception considerable contended creation creatures Crustacea Darwin Darwinian Darwinian theory degree difficulty direct distinct evidence evolution evolved existence explain external facts favor fishes force fortuitous gemmules habits harmony Herbert Spencer homology Huxley hypothesis Ibid ICHTHYOSAURUS indefinite individual innate power insects instances internal intuitions kind laws less limbs machairodus mammals manifestation marsupial matter means minute mode modifications moral Natural Selection objections observes Origin of Species Pangenesis peculiar phenomena Plants under Domestication PLESIOSAURUS possessed present preserved principle priori probably produced Prof pterodactyls race reason regard remarkable reptiles resemblance result says seems serial homology sexual selection Silurian similar structure supposed tend tendency theism theory of Natural tion true Ungulata variations vertebrate Wallace wing
Popular passages
Page 255 - 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 291 - 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 202 - In the distant future I see open fields for far more important researches. Psychology will be based on a new foundation, that of the necessary acquirement of each mental power and capacity by gradation. Light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history.
Page 262 - 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 272 - ... and fantail breeds ? Did He cause the frame and mental qualities of the dog to vary in order that a breed might be formed of indomitable ferocity, with jaws fitted to pin down the bull for man's brutal sport ? But if we give up the principle in one case, if we do not admit that the variations of the primeval dog were intentionally guided in order that the greyhound, for instance, that perfect image of symmetry and...
Page 72 - The justice of these remarks cannot I think be disputed. If, for instance, a bird of some kind could procure its food more easily by having its beak curved, and if one were born with its beak strongly curved, and which consequently flourished, nevertheless there would be a very poor chance of this one individual perpetuating its kind to the exclusion of the common form...
Page 217 - 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 208 - 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.