BiologyBase
Base Museum Life Sciences Dept
The Readable Darwin
Browse the text of the first edition of the Origin of Species,
published 1859. Click on the paragraph number to read that paragraph in
isolation.
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- When on board H.M.S. 'Beagle,' as naturalist, I was much struck with
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- certain facts in the distribution of the inhabitants of South America, and
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- in the geological relations of the present to the past inhabitants of that
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- continent. These facts seemed to me to throw some light on the origin of
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- species--that mystery of mysteries, as it has been called by one of our
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- greatest philosophers. On my return home, it occurred to me, in 1837, that
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- something might perhaps be made out on this question by patiently
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- accumulating and reflecting on all sorts of facts which could possibly have
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- any bearing on it. After five years' work I allowed myself to speculate on
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- the subject, and drew up some short notes; these I enlarged in 1844 into a
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- sketch of the conclusions, which then seemed to me probable: from that
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- period to the present day I have steadily pursued the same object. I hope
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- that I may be excused for entering on these personal details, as I give
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- them to show that I have not been hasty in coming to a decision.
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- My work is now nearly finished; but as it will take me two or three more
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- years to complete it, and as my health is far from strong, I have been
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- urged to publish this Abstract. I have more especially been induced to do
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- this, as Mr. Wallace, who is now studying the natural history of the Malay
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- archipelago, has arrived at almost exactly the same general conclusions
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- that I have on the origin of species. Last year he sent to me a memoir on
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- this subject, with a request that I would forward it to Sir Charles Lyell,
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- who sent it to the Linnean Society, and it is published in the third volume
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- of the Journal of that Society. Sir C. Lyell and Dr. Hooker, who both knew
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- of my work--the latter having read my sketch of 1844--honoured me by
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- thinking it advisable to publish, with Mr. Wallace's excellent memoir, some
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Original content copyright 1995-2007 Robert B. Hole, Jr. All Rights Reserved
Page last revised:
26 November, 2007