This Book is a Compilation of Several Books and Parts of Books: On the Nature of Things (Book V) by Lucretius On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres by Nicholas Copernicus Novum Organum (Book I) by Francis Bacon Discourse on Method by René Descartes The Positive Philosophy by Auguste Comte Recapitulation and Conclusion (from The […]

On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection, or, the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life. When on board H.M.S. ‘Beagle,’ as naturalist, I was much struck with certain facts in the distribution of the inhabitants of South America, and in the geological relations of the present to the past […]

I have stated in the preface to the first Edition of this work, and in the “Zoology of the Voyage of the Beagle,” that it was in consequence of a wish expressed by Captain Fitz Roy, of having some scientific person on board, accompanied by an offer from him of giving up part of his […]

[My father’s autobiographical recollections, given in the present chapter, were written for his children,–and written without any thought that they would ever be published. To many this may seem an impossibility; but those who knew my father will understand how it was not only possible, but natural. The autobiography bears the heading, ‘Recollections of the […]

My duty, in acknowledging the great obligations under which I lie to many naturalists, affords me most sincere pleasure. I had originally intended to have described only a single abnormal Cirripede, from the shores of South America, and was led, for the sake of comparison, to examine the internal parts of as many genera as […]