Origin of Species Variorum

→ petrels 1859 1860 1861

diving Hymenoptera, and petrels 1866 1869 1872

↑ 1 blocks not present in 1859 1860; present in 1861 1866 1869 1872

When it was first said that the sun stood still and the world turned round, the common sense of mankind declared the doctrine false; but the old saying of Vox populi , vox Dei , as every philosopher knows, can never be trusted in science.

→ very imperfect and simple, 1859 1860 1861

imperfect and simple, 1866

perfect and complex, 1869

complex and perfect can be shown to exist, 1872

→ can be shown to exist; 1859 1860 1861 1866

can be shown to exist, 1869

as is certainly the case; 1872

→ if 1859 1860 1861 1866 1872

as is certainly the case; if 1869

→ does vary ever so slightly, 1859 1860 1861

does vary ever so slightly 1866

ever slightly varies, 1869

ever varies 1872

→ or modification in the organ be ever 1859 1860 1861 1866

should ever be 1869

should be 1872

→ real. 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869

as subversive of the theory. 1872

the fact in dignified language. He who believes in the struggle for existence and in the principle of natural selection, will acknowledge that every organic being is constantly endeavouring to increase in numbers; and that if any one

varies

being varies

being vary

ever so little, either in habits or structure, and thus

gains

gain

an advantage over some other inhabitant of the

same country,

country,

it will seize on the place of that inhabitant, however different

that

may be from its own place. Hence it will cause him no surprise that there should be geese and frigate-birds with webbed feet,

either

....

living on the dry land

and

or most

rarely alighting on the water; that there should be long-toed

corncrakes,

corncrakes

living in meadows instead of in swamps; that there should be woodpeckers where

hardly

not

a tree grows; that there should be diving

thrushes

thrushes,

and →petrels with the habits of auks.

Organs

extreme

Perfection

perfection

and

complication .—

Complication .

Complication.

complication. —

To suppose that the

eye

eye,

with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest

~~possible~~

possible

degree. ↑

~~Yet~~

Yet

Reason

reason

tells me, that if numerous gradations from

imperfect

simple

perfect

and

simple

imperfect

complex

eye to one →very imperfect and simple, each grade being useful to its possessor, →can be shown to exist; →if further, the eye →does vary ever so slightly, and the variations be inherited,

which

likewise certainly

certainly

the case; and if

such

any

variations

variation

→or modification in the organ be ever useful to

any

animal under changing conditions of life, then the difficulty of believing that a perfect and complex eye could

have been

formed by natural selection, though insuperable by our imagination,

cannot

should not

can hardly

be considered →real. How a nerve comes to be sensitive to