Darwiniana; essays

492 Pages·2009·113.41 MB·English

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D A R W I N I A NA
ESSAYS
BY
THOMAS H. HUXLEY
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Authorized Edition.
PEEFACE
I HAVE entitled this volume "Darwiniana"
because the pieces republished in it either treat of
the ancient doctrine of Evolution, rehabilitated and
placed upon a sound scientific foundation, since
and in consequence of, the publication of the
" Origin of Species ;" or they attempt to meet the
more weighty of the unsparing criticisms with
which that great work was visited for several years
after its appearance ; or they record the impression
left by the personality of Mr. Darwin on one who
had the privilege and the happiness of enjoying his
friendship for some thirty years; or they endeavour
to sum up his work and indicate its enduring
influence on the course of scientific thought.
Those who take the trouble to read the first
two essays, published in 1859 and 1860, will, I
think, do me the justice to admit that my zeal to
secure fair play for Mr. Dai-win, did not drive me
into the position of a mere advocate; and that,
while doing justice to the greatness of the argu-
VI PEEFACE
ment I did not fail to indicate its weak points, I
have never seen any reason for departing from the
position which I took up in these two essays; and
the assertion which I sometimes meet with nowa
days, that I have " recanted" or changed my
opinions about Mr. Darwin's views, is quite unin-
.telligible to me.
As I have said in the seventh essay, the fact of
evolution is to my mind sufficiently evidenced by
palaeontology; and I remain of the opinion ex
pressed in the second, that until selective breeding
is definitely proved to give rise to varieties infertile
with one another, the logical foundation of the
theory of natural selection is incomplete. We still
remain very much in the dark about the causes of
variation; the apparent inheritance of acquired
characters in some cases; and the struggle for
existence within the organism, which probably
lies at the bottom of both of these phenomena.
Some apology is due to the reader for the repro
duction of the "Lectures to Working Men" in
their original state. They were taken down in
shorthand by Mr. J. Aldous Mays, who requested
me to allow him to print them. I was very much
pressed with work at the time; and, as I could not
revise the reports, which I imagined, moreover,
would be of little or no interest to any but my
auditors, I stipulated that a notice should be pre
fixed to that effect. This was done; but it did not
PREFACE, Vll
prevent a considerable diffusion of the little book
in this country and in the United States, nor its
translation into more than one foreign language.
Moreover Mr. Darwin often urged me to revise and
expand the lectures into a systematic popular
exposition of the topics of which they treat, I
have more than once set about the task; but the
proverb about spoUing a horn and not making a
spoon, is particularly applicable to attempts to
remodel a piece of work which may have served its
immediate purpose well enough.
So I have reprinted the lectures as they stand,
with all their imperfections on their heads. It
would seem that many people must have found
them useful thirty years ago; and, though the
sixties appear now to be reckoned by many of the
rising generation as a part of the dark ages, I am
not without some grounds for suspecting that
there yet remains a fair sprinkling even of
"philosophic thinkers" to whom it may be a
profitable, perhaps even a novel, task to descend
from the heights of speculation and go over the
A B C of the great biological problem as it was
set before a body of shrewd artisans at that remote
epoch.
T. H. H.
HODESLEA, EASTEOtTENE,
ApHl 7ih, 1893.

CONTENTS
I
PAGE
THE DARWINIAN HYPOTHESIS [1859] , . , . . o , . . 1
II
THE OEIGIN OF SPECIES [1860] , , . . . , 22
III
CEITICISMS ON " THE OEIGIN OF SPECIES" [1864] . , . 80
IV
THE GENEALOGY OF ANIMALS [1869] 107
V
ME. DAEWIN'S CEITIOS [1871] , . , , 120
VI
EYOLtTTION IN BIOLOGY [1878] . .. . . 187
X CONTENTS
VII
PAGE
THE COMING OF AGE OF "THE OEIGIN OF SPECIES"
[1880] . . . . . .. 227
VIII
OHAELBS DAEWIN [1882] 244
IX
THE DARWIN MBMOEIAL [1885] 248
X
OBITUARY [1888] . . 253
XI
BlX LEOTtTKBS TO WORKING MEN " ON OITE KNOWLEDGE
OF THE CATTSES OF THE PHENOMENA OF OEOANIO
NATIIBE" [1863] .303