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Abiogenesis admitted ancient Ancon animals appear arguments believe biology body called carbonate carbonic acid Carboniferous causes chalk changes character Comte Comte's conception cretaceous Crustacea Darwin deposits Descartes Devonian distinct doctrine doubt earth embryonic epoch evidence exhibited existence fact force forms fossil genera geological speculation geologists germs give rise globe Globigerina heat Hutton Hyæna hypothesis kind Lamarck laws less living lobster logical mass matter means ment Mesozoic method mind modern modification natural knowledge natural selection naturalists observation offspring organic Origin of Species paleontology Paleozoic particles Pébrine peculiar phænomena philosophy physical science physiological plants position possess present produced protoplasm prove question races reason result rocks scientific selection sense Silurian similar special creation structure substance suppose Teleology theory things thought tion true truth Uniformitarianism universe variety vertebræ whole Xenogenesis
Popular passages
Page 40 - That man, I think, has had a liberal education, who has been so trained in youth that his body is the ready servant of his will, and does with ease and pleasure all the work that, as a mechanism, it is capable of; whose intellect is a clear, cold, logic engine, with all its parts of equal strength, and in smooth working order...
Page 18 - As when in heaven the stars about the moon Look beautiful, when all the winds are laid, And every height comes out, and jutting peak And valley, and the immeasurable heavens Break open to their highest, and all the stars Shine, and the Shepherd gladdens in his heart...
Page 152 - In itself it is of little moment whether we express the phenomena of matter in terms of spirit, or the phenomena of spirit in terms of matter; matter may be regarded as a form of thought, thought may be regarded as a property of matter ; each statement has a certain relative truth. But with a view to the progress of science the materialistic terminology is in every way to be preferred...
Page 255 - Mathematics may be compared to a mill of exquisite workmanship, which grinds you stuff of any degree of fineness ; but, nevertheless, what you get out depends on what you put in ; and as the grandest mill in the world will not extract wheat-flour from peascods, so pages of formulae will not get a definite result out of loose data.
Page 38 - To the man who plays well, the highest stakes are paid, with that sort of overflowing generosity with which the strong shows delight in strength. And one who plays ill is checkmated — without haste, but without remorse. My metaphor will remind some of you of the famous picture in which Eetzsch has depicted Satan playing at chess with man for his soul.
Page 9 - Our business was (precluding matters of Theology and state affairs) to discourse and consider of Philosophical Enquiries, and such as related thereunto : as physick, anatomy, geometry, astronomy, navigation, staticks, magneticks, chymicks, mechanicks, and natural experiments ; with the state of these studies, as then cultivated at home and abroad.
Page 284 - Extinguished theologians lie about the cradle of every science as the strangled snakes beside that of Hercules ; and history records that whenever science and orthodoxy have been fairly opposed, the latter has been forced to retire from the lists, bleeding and crushed, if not annihilated ; scotched, if not slain.
Page 149 - And what is the dire necessity and " iron " law under which men groan ? Truly, most gratuitously invented bugbears. I suppose if there be an " iron " law, it is that of gravitation ; and if there be a physical necessity, it is that a stone, unsupported, must fall to the ground. But what is all we really know, and can know, about the latter...
Page 184 - The crust which is often deposited by waters which have drained through limestone rocks, in the form of what are called stalagmites and stalactites, is carbonate of lime. Or to take a more familiar example, the fur on the inside of a tea-kettle is carbonate of lime; and for anything chemistry tells us to the contrary, the chalk might be a kind of gigantic fur upon the bottom of the earth-kettle, which is kept pretty hot below. Let us try another method of making the chalk tell us its own history....
Page 41 - ... whose mind is stored with a knowledge of the great and fundamental truths of Nature and of the laws of her operations; one who, no stunted ascetic, is full of life and fire, but whose passions are trained to come to heel by a vigorous will, the servant of a tender conscience; who has learned to love all beauty, whether of Nature or of art, to hate all vileness, and to respect others as himself.