Category: History - Modern (1750+)
When the history of the Nineteenth Century--'the Wonderful Century,' as it has, not inaptly, been called--comes to be written, a foremost place must be assigned to that great movement by which evolution has become the dominant factor in scientific progress, while its influence...
When the history of the Nineteenth Century--'the Wonderful Century,' as it has, not inaptly, been called--comes to be written, a foremost place must be assigned to that great mo...
2. Chapter 2In all ages, and in all parts of the world, we find that primitive man has delighted in speculating on the birth of the world in which he lives, on the origin of the living thin...
3. Chapter 3We have seen in the preceding chapter that, with respect to the origin of plants and animals--including man himself--two very distinct lines of speculation have arisen; these tw...
4. Chapter 4There is no fact in the history of science which is more certain than that those great pioneers of Evolution in the Inorganic world--Generelli, Desmarest and Hutton--utterly fai...
5. Chapter 5The year 1797, in which the illustrious Hutton died, leaving behind him the noble fragments of a monumental work, was signalised by the birth of two men, who were destined to br...
6. Chapter 6We have seen that as early as the year 1817, when he visited East Anglia, Lyell began to experience vague doubts concerning the soundness of the 'Catastrophist' doctrines, which...
7. Chapter 7Although the _Principles of Geology_ was received by the public with something like enthusiasm--due to the cogency of its reasoning and the charm of its literary style--there we...
8. Chapter 8In studying the history of Evolutionary ideas, it is necessary to keep in mind that there are two perfectly distinct lines of thought, the origin and development of which have t...
9. Chapter 9Charles Darwin was the grandson of Erasmus Darwin, who, as we have seen, arrived independently at conclusions concerning the origin of species very similar to those of Lamarck,...
10. Chapter 10In the preceding chapter I have endeavoured to show how the hypothesis of Natural Selection originated in the minds of its authors, and must now invite attention to the way in w...
11. Chapter 11In two essays 'On the Coming of Age of the Origin of Species[134],' and 'On the Reception of the Origin of Species[135],' published in 1880 and 1887 respectively, Huxley has dis...
12. Chapter 12From the account given in the foregoing pages, it will be seen that--without detracting from the merits of their predecessors or the value of the labours of their contemporaries...