| → into an elaborately 1869 1872 |
| elaborately 1859 1860 1861 1866 |
|
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have a better chance of surviving, and thus be naturally selected. From the strong principle of inheritance, any selected variety will tend to propagate its new and modified form. |
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| This fundamental subject of Natural Selection will be treated at some length in the fourth chapter; and we shall then see how Natural Selection almost inevitably causes much Extinction of the less improved forms of life, and
what I have called Divergence of Character. In the next chapter I shall discuss the complex and little known laws of
In the
succeeding chapters, the most apparent and gravest difficulties
the theory will be given: namely, first, the difficulties of transitions, or
how a simple being or a simple organ can be changed and perfected into a highly developed being or
→into an elaborately
constructed organ; secondly, the subject of Instinct, or the mental powers of animals; thirdly, Hybridism, or the infertility of species and the fertility of varieties when intercrossed; and fourthly, the imperfection of the Geological Record. In the next chapter I shall consider the geological succession of organic beings throughout time; in the
and
their geographical distribution throughout space; in the
their classification or mutual affinities, both when mature and in an embryonic condition. In the last chapter I shall give a brief recapitulation of the whole work, and a few concluding remarks. |
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| No one ought to feel surprise at much remaining as yet unexplained in regard to the origin of species and varieties, if he
due allowance for our profound ignorance in regard to the mutual relations of
the
which live around us. Who can explain why one species ranges widely and is very numerous, and why another allied species has a narrow range and is
|
