Darwin (1809-1882) Essay, Research Paper
Habitual instincts are inherited within
each species. Ants and bees build their nests and hives with no previous
experience. Birds migrate and build homes according to their unique inner
senses. But instincts too may change over time as “consequences of one
general law leading to the advancement of all organic beings … multiply,
vary, let the strongest live and the weakest die.”
Other chapters deal with related topics:
hybridism; living species compared to those of ancient geological periods;
extinction; geographical distribution of organisms; relationships between
species; and the classification of organisms. Objections to the general
theory of evolution are presented in both Darwin’s conclusion and glossary
of terms.
Darwin’s observations led him to believe
that species did adapt to their changing surroundings. Furthermore, he
was led to defend as a logical, observable – and even religious – corollary
of this conclusion,
for all living creatures.
Authors of the highest eminence seem to
be fully satisfied with the view that each species has been independently
created. To my mind it accords better with what we know of the laws impressed
on matter by the Creator, that the production and extinction of the past
and present inhabitants of the world should have been due to secondary
causes, like those determining the birth and death of an individual. When
I view all beings not as special creations, but as lineal descendants of
some few beings which have lived long before the first bed of the Cambrian
system was deposited, they seem to me to become ennobled.
The Origin of Species represents Darwin’s
many years of personal and intellectual struggle. It is candidly argued
and presented in a flowing, orderly manner, then left for each reader to
weigh the evidence. As a text on natural history, its ideas are refreshingly
comprehensible and insightful.