THE OrJGIN OF SPECIES, 



By CHARLES DARWIN. 



A new American edition of "The Origin of Ppocios," later than the latrM 

 En^'lish edition, lias just been published, with the author's most recent cor- 

 rections nml additions. 



In the whole history of the proj,'ress of knowledge there is no case «o ro- 

 mnrkable of a system of doctrines, at first generally condonino<i ns false and 

 al)gurd, coming into general acceptance In the scientific world in a ningle 

 decade From the following statement'^, the reader will infer tlio c!«timat< 

 that is now placed upon the man and his works by the highest authorities. 



"Personally and practically exercised in zoology, in minute anatomy, in 

 geology ; a student of geographical distribution, not on n)aps and in miisourna 

 only, but by long voyages and laborious collection ; having largely n«Jvaiicod 

 each of these branches of science, and having spent many years In gatlicring 

 and sifting materials for his present work, the store of accurafcly-rcgislcred 

 facts upon which the author of the 'Origin of Species' is able to draw at 

 will is prodigious." — Prof. T. II. Huxley. 



'* Far abler men than myself may confess fliat they have not that untiring 

 patience in accumulating, and that wonderful skill in using, hrge masses of 

 fuels of the most varied kind — that wide and accurate physiological knowl- 

 edge — that aeuteness in devising, that skill in carrying out experiuteiit*, and 

 tliat admirable stylo of ccinposition, at once clear, persuasive, and ju-lieial, 

 qualities which, in their harmonious combination, mark out Mr. Darwin as 

 the man, perhaps of all men now living, best fitted for the great work ho 

 has undertaken and accomplished." — Alfred Russell Wallace, 



In Germany these views arc rapidly extending. Prof. Hifkik, a distin. 

 guishcd British geologist, attended the recent Congress of German Natural- 

 ists and Physicians, at Innspruck, in which some eight hundred $avanU 

 were present, and thus writes: 



"What specially struck me was the universal sway which the writings 

 of Darwin now exercise over the German mind. You sec it on every side, in 

 private conversation, in printed papers, in all the many sections into wliich 

 such a meeting as that at Innspruck divides. Darwin's name is often men- 

 tioned, and always with the profoundest veneration. Hut even where no al- 

 lusion is specially made to him, nay, even more markedly, where such allusion 

 is absent, we see how thoroughly his doctrines have permeated the acientilio 

 mind, even in those departments of knowledge which mi^ht seem at first 

 sight to be farthest from natural history. 'You are still discussing in Eng- 

 land,' said a German friend to me, ' whether or not the theory of Darwin can 

 be true. We have got a long way beyond that here. His theory is now our 

 common starting-point.' And, so far as my experience went, I found it le 



b6 80." 



33. APPr^KTON Ac CO.. 3?ubliHhcm. 



