The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, Or, The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life |
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adapted admit affinities allied species America analogous ancient animals appear beak become bees believe belonging birds breeds cause cells characters climate closely allied color common continent crossed crustaceans degree developed difficulty distinct species domestic doubt effects eggs embryo existing extinct extremely facts favorable fertility fishes flowers formation forms fossil Fritz Müller genera genus geological Glacial period gradations greater number groups of species habits Hence hybrids important individuals inhabitants inherited insects instance instincts intercrossing intermediate kind lamellæ larvæ less living Malay Archipelago male mammals manner marsupial migration modified descendants natural selection naturalists nearly nest offspring organs paleozoic parent peculiar perfect pigeon pistil plants pollen present principle probably produced progenitor quadrupeds ranked reciprocal crosses remarked resemblance rudimentary seeds sexual selection Silurian slight South America stamens sterility structure successive supposed tend theory tion trees variability variations varieties vary whole wings young
Popular passages
Page 21 - 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 279 - If it could be proved that any part of the structure of any one species had been formed for the exclusive good of another species, it would annihilate my theory, for such could not have been produced through natural selection.
Page 147 - Every species has come into existence coincident both in space and time with a pre-existing closely allied species.
Page 121 - If such do occur, can we doubt (remembering that many more individuals are born than can possibly survive) that individuals having any advantage, however slight, over others, would have the best chance of surviving and of procreating their kind ? On the other hand, we may feel sure that any variation in the least degree injurious would be rigidly destroyed. This preservation of favourable individual differences and variations, and the destruction of those which are injurious, I have called Natural...
Page 255 - If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down.
Page 132 - ... perform strange antics before the females, which, standing by as spectators, at last choose the most attractive partner.
Page 316 - 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 58 - We cannot suppose that all the breeds were suddenly produced as perfect and as useful as we now see them ; indeed, in several cases, we know that this has not been their history. The key is man's power of accumulative selection : nature gives successive variations ; man adds them up in certain directions useful to him.
Page 122 - So again it is difficult to avoid personifying the word Nature; but I mean by Nature, only the aggregate action and product of many natural laws, and by laws the sequence of events as ascertained by us.
Page 316 - Thus from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving — namely, the production of the higher animals — directly follows. 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...