Book contents
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- Contents
- ARTICLE I THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES BY MEANS OF NATURAL SELECTION
- ARTICLE II DESIGN versus NECESSITY—A DISCUSSION
- ARTICLE III NATURAL SELECTION NOT INCONSISTENT WITH NATURAL THEOLOGY
- ARTICLE IV SPECIES AS TO VARIATION, GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION, AND SUCCESSION
- ARTICLE V SEQUOIA AND ITS HISTORY: THE RELATIONS OF NORTH AMERICAN TO NORTH-EASTERN ASIAN AND TO TERTIARY VEGETATION
- ARTICLE VI THE ATTITUDE OF WORKING NATURALISTS TOWARD DARWINISM
- ARTICLE VII EVOLUTION AND THEOLOGY
- ARTICLE VIII “WHAT IS DARWINISM?”
- ARTICLE IX CHARLES DARWIN: SKETCH ACCOMPANYING A PORTRAIT IN “NATURE”
- ARTICLE X INSECTIVOROUS PLANTS
- ARTICLE XI INSECTIVOROUS AND CLIMBING PLANTS
- ARTICLE XII DURATION AND ORIGINATION OF RACE AND SPECIES
- ARTICLE XIII EVOLUTIONARY TELEOLOGY
- INDEX
ARTICLE III - NATURAL SELECTION NOT INCONSISTENT WITH NATURAL THEOLOGY
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2010
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- Contents
- ARTICLE I THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES BY MEANS OF NATURAL SELECTION
- ARTICLE II DESIGN versus NECESSITY—A DISCUSSION
- ARTICLE III NATURAL SELECTION NOT INCONSISTENT WITH NATURAL THEOLOGY
- ARTICLE IV SPECIES AS TO VARIATION, GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION, AND SUCCESSION
- ARTICLE V SEQUOIA AND ITS HISTORY: THE RELATIONS OF NORTH AMERICAN TO NORTH-EASTERN ASIAN AND TO TERTIARY VEGETATION
- ARTICLE VI THE ATTITUDE OF WORKING NATURALISTS TOWARD DARWINISM
- ARTICLE VII EVOLUTION AND THEOLOGY
- ARTICLE VIII “WHAT IS DARWINISM?”
- ARTICLE IX CHARLES DARWIN: SKETCH ACCOMPANYING A PORTRAIT IN “NATURE”
- ARTICLE X INSECTIVOROUS PLANTS
- ARTICLE XI INSECTIVOROUS AND CLIMBING PLANTS
- ARTICLE XII DURATION AND ORIGINATION OF RACE AND SPECIES
- ARTICLE XIII EVOLUTIONARY TELEOLOGY
- INDEX
Summary
Novelties are enticing to most people; to us they are simply annoying. We cling to a long-accepted theory, just as we cling to an old suit of clothes. A new theory, like a new pair of breeches (the Atlantic still affects the older type of nether garment), is sure to have hard-fitting places; or, even when no particular fault can be found with the article, it oppresses with a sense of general discomfort. New notions and new styles worry us, till we get well used to them, which is only by slow degrees.
Wherefore, in Galileo's time, we might have helped to proscribe, or to burn—had he been stubborn enough to warrant cremation—even the great pioneer of inductive research; although, when we had fairly recovered our composure, and had leisurely excogitated the matter, we might have come to conclude that the new doctrine was better than the old one, after all, at least for those who had nothing to unlearn.
Such being our habitual state of mind, it may well be believed that the perusal of the new book “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection” left an uncomfortable impression, in spite of its plausible and winning ways. We were not wholly unprepared for it, as many of our contemporaries seem to have been. The scientific reading in which we indulge as a relaxation from severer studies had raised dim forebodings.
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- Chapter
- Information
- DarwinianaEssays and Reviews Pertaining to Darwinism, pp. 87 - 177Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009First published in: 1876