Search Results - The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online

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A336 Book: Gray, Asa. 1888. Darwiniana: Essays and reviews pertaining to Darwinism. New York: D. Appleton. Text Image PDF

proposing a theory which suggests a how that harmonizes these facts into a system, we trust implies that all was done wisely, in the largest sense designedly, and by an intelligent first cause. The contemplation of the subject on the intellectual side, the amplest exposition of the unity of plan in creation, considered irrespective of natural agencies, leads to no other conclusion. We are thus, at last, brought to the question, What would happen if the derivation of species were to be substantiated

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A336 Book: Gray, Asa. 1888. Darwiniana: Essays and reviews pertaining to Darwinism. New York: D. Appleton. Text Image PDF

as may be apart from the human element of time, our author may regard the intervention of the Creator either as, humanly speaking, done from all time, or else as doing through all time. In the ultimate analysis we suppose that every philosophical theist must adopt one or the other conception. A perversion of the first view leads toward atheism, the notion of an eternal sequence of cause and effect, for which there is no first cause—a view which few sane persons can long rest in. The danger

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A336 Book: Gray, Asa. 1888. Darwiniana: Essays and reviews pertaining to Darwinism. New York: D. Appleton. Text Image PDF

proceeding long enough, generation multiplying the better variations times enough, and natural selection securing the improvements] a living optical instrument might be thus formed as superior to one of glass as the works of the Creator are to those of man? This must mean one of two things: either that the living instrument was made and perfected under (which is the same thing as by) an intelligent First Cause, or that it was not. If it was, then theism is asserted; and as to the mode of operation

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A336 Book: Gray, Asa. 1888. Darwiniana: Essays and reviews pertaining to Darwinism. New York: D. Appleton. Text Image PDF

-deposits, prove design, but that nicer and thousand-fold more complex adaptations to use in animals and vegetables do not a fortiori argue design. We could not affirm that the arguments for design in Nature are conclusive to all minds. But we may insist, upon grounds already intimated, that, whatever they were good for before Darwin's book appeared, they are good for now. To our minds the argument from design always appeared conclusive of the being and continued operation of an intelligent First Cause

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A336 Book: Gray, Asa. 1888. Darwiniana: Essays and reviews pertaining to Darwinism. New York: D. Appleton. Text Image PDF

full well that, tracing up the phenomena from cause to cause, we must somewhere reach the more direct agency of a First Cause. ... It is evident that, however species were introduced, whether suddenly or gradually, it is the duty of Science ever to strive to understand the means and processes by which species originated. ... Now, of the various conceivable secondary causes and processes, by some of which we must believe species originated, by far the most probable is certainly that of

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A336 Book: Gray, Asa. 1888. Darwiniana: Essays and reviews pertaining to Darwinism. New York: D. Appleton. Text Image PDF

pressed on matter by the Creator, etc. If that does not refer the efficiency of physical causes to the First Cause, what form of words could do so? The positive charge appears to be equally gratuitous. In both Dr. Hodge must have overlooked the beginning as well as the end of the volume which he judges so hardly. Just as mathematicians and physicists, in their systems, are wont to postulate the fundamental and undeniable truths they are concerned with, or what they take for such and require to

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A336 Book: Gray, Asa. 1888. Darwiniana: Essays and reviews pertaining to Darwinism. New York: D. Appleton. Text Image PDF

and flora of our earth to be accounted for? ... To account for the existence of matter and life, Mr. Darwin admits a Creator. This is done explicitly and repeatedly. ... He assumes the efficiency of physical causes, showing no disposition to resolve them into mind-force or into the efficiency of the First Cause. ... He assumes, also, the existence of life in the form of one or more primordial germs. ... How all living things on earth, including the endless variety of plants and all the

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A551 Pamphlet: Foote, G. W. 1889. Darwin on God. London: Progressive publishing company. Text Image PDF

literature. A PERSONAL GOD. We have already seen that Darwin remained a Deist after rejecting Christianity. Not only in the letter on Dr. Pusey's sermon, but in his Autobiography, Darwin discloses the fact that his belief in a personal God melted away after the publication of his masterpiece. Speaking of a First Cause having an intelligent mind in some degree analogous to that of man, he says, This conclusion was strong in may mind about the 6 Three Essays on Religion By J.S. Mill, p. 122. 7

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A551 Pamphlet: Foote, G. W. 1889. Darwin on God. London: Progressive publishing company. Text Image PDF

). I may say that the impossibility of conceiving that this grand and wondrous universe, with our conscious selves, arose through chance, seems to me the chief argument for the existence of God; but whether this is an argument of real value I have never been able to decide. I am aware that if we admit a first cause, the mind still craves to know whence it came, and how it arose. Nor can I overlook the difficulty from the immense amount of suffering through the world. I am also induced to defer to a

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A551 Pamphlet: Foote, G. W. 1889. Darwin on God. London: Progressive publishing company. Text Image PDF

from the existence of suffering against the existence of an intelligent First Cause seems to me a strong one. 1 Darwin is perfectly conscious that he is advancing no new argument against Theism. An age of microscopical science was, indeed, necessary before the internal parasites of caterpillars could be instanced; not to mention the thirty species of parasites that prey on the human organism. But such larger parasites as fleas and lice have always been obvious, and the theologians have been

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A551 Pamphlet: Foote, G. W. 1889. Darwin on God. London: Progressive publishing company. Text Image PDF

immense and wonderful universe, including man with his capacity of looking far backwards and far into futurity, as the result of blind chance or necessity. When thus reflecting I feel compelled to look to a First Cause having; an intelligent mind in some degree analogous to that of man. This conclusion was strong in my mind about the time, as far as I can remember, when I wrote the Origin of Species; and it is since 5 Vol I., p. 312. [page] 5

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A268 Book: Holder, Charles Frederick. 1892. Charles Darwin: his life and work. New York: G. P. Putnam's sons. Text Image PDF

by giving publicity to views which might differ from theirs, while another was that he held a man's religious belief should not be paraded in public print. He has been called an infidel and atheist so often that there is a wide-spread belief to this effect, but nothing could be further from the truth. Darwin was a firm believer in a First Cause. He was in theory an agnostic, in practice an orthodox Christian of the broadest type. Honourable in the smallest things in life, thoughtful of others

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A268 Book: Holder, Charles Frederick. 1892. Charles Darwin: his life and work. New York: G. P. Putnam's sons. Text Image PDF

that one and the same kind of living filaments is and has been the cause of all organic life : Would it be too bold to imagine that, in the great length of time since the earth began to exist, perhaps millions of ages before the commencement of the history of mankind,—would it be too bold to imagine that all warm-blooded animals have arisen from one living filament, which the great First Cause endued with animality, with the power of acquiring new parts, attended with new propensities, directed

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F1461 Book: Darwin, Francis ed. 1892. Charles Darwin: his life told in an autobiographical chapter, and in a selected series of his published letters [abridged edition]. London: John Murray. Text Image PDF

argument of real value, I have never been able to decide. I am aware that if we admit a First Cause, the mind still craves to know whence it came, and how it arose. Nor can I overlook the difficulty from the immense amount of suffering through the world. I am, also, induced to defer to a certain extent to the judgment of the many able men who have fully believed in God; but here again I see how poor an argument this is. The safest conclusion seems to me that the whole subject is beyond the scope of

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F1461 Book: Darwin, Francis ed. 1892. Charles Darwin: his life told in an autobiographical chapter, and in a selected series of his published letters [abridged edition]. London: John Murray. Text Image PDF

his moral improvement. But the number of men in the world is as nothing compared with that of all other sentient beings, and they often suffer greatly without any moral improvement. This very old argument from the existence of suffering against the existence of an intelligent First Cause seems to me a strong one; whereas, as just remarked, the presence of much suffering agrees well with the view that all organic beings have been developed through variation and natural selection. At the present

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F1461 Book: Darwin, Francis ed. 1892. Charles Darwin: his life told in an autobiographical chapter, and in a selected series of his published letters [abridged edition]. London: John Murray. Text Image PDF

conceiving this immense and wonderful universe, including man with his capacity of looking far backwards and far into futurity, as the result of blind chance or necessity. When thus reflecting, I feel compelled to look to a First Cause having an intelligent mind in some degree analogous to that of man; and I deserve to be called a Theist. This conclusion was strong in my mind about the time, as far as I can remember, when I wrote the Origin of Species, and it is since that time that it has very

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F1461 Book: Darwin, Francis ed. 1892. Charles Darwin: his life told in an autobiographical chapter, and in a selected series of his published letters [abridged edition]. London: John Murray. Text Image PDF

pestilent abstraction, like dust cast in our eyes to obscure the workings of an Intelligent First Cause of all? The reviewer pays a tribute to my father's candour so manly and outspoken as almost to 'cover a multitude of sins.' The parentheses (to which allusion is made above) are so frequent as to give a characteristic appearance to Mr. Wollaston's pages. Another version of the words is given by Lyell, to whom they were spoken, viz. the most illogical book ever written. Life and Letters of Sir C

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A238 Book: Wallace, A. R. 1895. Natural selection and tropical nature: Essays on descriptive and theoretical biology. London: Macmillan. Text Image

the universe, except in the same sense that the action of man or of any other intelligent being is a first cause. In using such terms I wished to show plainly that I contemplated the possibility that the development of the essentially human portions of man's structure and intellect may have been determined by the directing influence of some higher intelligent beings, acting through natural and universal laws. A belief of this nature may or may not have a foundation, but it is an intelligible

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F2113 Book contribution: Darwin, C. R. 1896. [Recollections of Darwin]. In E. R. Lankester. 'Charles Robert Darwin'. In C. D. Warner ed. Library of the world's best literature ancient and modern. New York: R. S. Peale & J. A. Hill, vol. 2, pp. 4385-4393. Text PDF

number of men in the world is as nothing compared with that of all other sentient beings, and they often suffer greatly without any moral improvement. This very old argument from the existence of suffering against the existence of an intelligent First Cause seems to me a strong one; whereas, as just remarked, the presence of much suffering agrees well with the view that [page] all organic beings have been developed through variation and natural selection. At the present day, the most usual

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A162 Book: Seward, A. C. ed. 1909. Darwin and modern science. Essays in commemoration of the centenary of the birth of Charles Darwin and of the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of The origin of species. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Text Image PDF

core of all religion is faith in the persistence of value in the world, and if the highest values express themselves in the cry Excelsior! then the capital point is, that this cry should always be heard and followed. We have here a corollary of the theory of evolution in its application to human life. Darwin declared himself an agnostic, not only because he could not harmonise the large amount of suffering in the world with the idea of a God as its first cause, but also because he was aware

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A488 Book: Nash, Wallis. 1919. A lawyer's life on two continents. Boston: Richard G. Badger, the Gorham Press. [Darwin reminiscences only] Text Image

theologians to do that. I know of no passage in his books wherein he disputes the existence of an All Powerful and Eternal First Cause, by whom laws were framed and set in motion which have caused the universe and all that is therein; from whom came the soul of man, and to whom all men owe allegiance. I have recalled a noble passage in one of his books wherein he upheld the grandeur of the idea of the preparation of the physical man through the ages of the dim past for the inbreathing into the

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A260 Book: Fenton, Carroll Lane. [1924]. Darwin and the theory of evolution. Girard, Kansas: Haldeman-Julius. Text Image

to a teleological interpretation of the universality of suffering. Some, he says, have attempted to explain this with reference to man by imagining that it serves for his moral improvement. But the number of men in the world is as nothing compared with that of all other sentient beings, and they often suffer greatly without any moral improvement. This very old argument from the existence of suffering against the existense of an intelligent First Cause seems to me a strong one; whereas, as just

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A260 Book: Fenton, Carroll Lane. [1924]. Darwin and the theory of evolution. Girard, Kansas: Haldeman-Julius. Text Image

in immortality, rather envied those who could, but maintained his own doubt. The same is true of his attitude on the problem of conceiving the universe, or the great group of universes, as the result of purely impersonal, unintelligent, natural forces. When thus reflecting, he says, I feel compelled to look for a First Cause having an intelligent mind in some degree analogous to man; and I deserve to be called a Theist. This conclusion was strong in my mind about the time, as far as I remember

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A179 Book: Ward, Henshaw. 1927. Charles Darwin: The man and his warfare. London: John Murray. Text Image

it may be carried on through the intervention of intermediate causes. I left this rather to be inferred, not thinking it worth while to offend a certain class of persons by embodying in words what would only be a speculation. But the German critics have attacked me vigorously, saying that by the impugning of the doctrine of spontaneous generation, and substituting nothing in its place, I have left them nothing but the direct and miraculous intervention of the First Cause, as often as a new

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A179 Book: Ward, Henshaw. 1927. Charles Darwin: The man and his warfare. London: John Murray. Text Image

the necessities of the creatures which possess them, and on which their existence depends . Would it be too bold to imagine, that, in the great length of time since the earth began to exist, perhaps millions of ages before the commencement of the history of mankind, would it be too bold to imagine, that all warm-blooded animals have arisen from one living filament, which THE GREAT FIRST CAUSE endued with animality, with the power of acquiring new parts . and thus possessing the faculty of

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F1497 Book: Darwin, C. R. 1958. The autobiography of Charles Darwin 1809-1882. With the original omissions restored. Edited and with appendix and notes by his grand-daughter Nora Barlow. London: Collins. Text Image PDF

throughout almost endless time? This very old argument from the existence of suffering against the existence of an intelligent first cause seems to me a strong one; whereas, as just remarked, the presence of much suffering agrees well with the view that all organic beings have been developed through variation and natural selection. At the present day the most usual argument for the existence of an intelligent God is drawn from the deep inward conviction and feelings which are experienced by most

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F1497 Book: Darwin, C. R. 1958. The autobiography of Charles Darwin 1809-1882. With the original omissions restored. Edited and with appendix and notes by his grand-daughter Nora Barlow. London: Collins. Text Image PDF

destruction of our world will not appear so dreadful. Another source of conviction in the existence of God, connected with the reason and not with the feelings, impresses me as having much more weight. This follows from the extreme difficulty or rather impossibility of conceiving this immense and wonderful universe, including man with his capacity of looking far backwards and far into futurity, as the result of blind chance or necessity. When thus reflecting I feel compelled to look to a First

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F1582 Book contribution: Barrett, P. H. 1974. Early writings of Charles Darwin. In Gruber, H. E., Darwin on man. A psychological study of scientific creativity; together with Darwin's early and unpublished notebooks. Transcribed and annotated by Paul H. Barrett, commentary by Howard E. Gruber. Foreword by Jean Piaget. London: Wildwood House. [Notebooks M, N, Old and useless notes, Essay on theology and natural selection, Questions for Mr. Wynn, Extracts from B-C-D-E transmutation notebooks, A Biographical Sketch of Charles Darwin's Father, Plinian Society Minutes Book] Text

, 5 vols., Adam and Black, Edinburgh, 1831 1849, Vol. 4, 1838, pp. 8 9. 170. This reference to Scott, and the next, have not been traced. See however n. 41. 171. This statement reflects Darwin's early rejection of Progressionism as presented by Erasmus Darwin, Zoonomia, p. 505: . . . all warm-blooded animals have arisen from one living filament, which THE GREAT FIRST CAUSE endued with animality, with the power of acquiring new parts, attended with new propensities, directed by irritations

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F167c Book: Keynes, Richard Darwin ed. 1979. The Beagle record. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Text Image PDF

was once riding with an Indian a few miles to the North of the R. Colorado, when the latter began making the same noise which is usual at the first sight of the tree, putting his hand to his head then in the direction of the Sierra. Upon being asked the reason of this, the Indian said in broken Spanish 'first see the Sierra'. This likewise would render it probable that the utility of a distant landmark is the first cause of its adoration. About two leagues from this very curious tree we halted

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F1817 Book: Barrett, Paul H., Gautrey, Peter J., Herbert, Sandra, Kohn, David, Smith, Sydney eds. 1987. Charles Darwin's notebooks, 1836-1844: Geology, transmutation of species, metaphysical enquiries. British Museum (Natural History); Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Text PDF

. Erasmus Darwin 1794-96. 1:505 '... would it be too bold to imagine . . . that all warm-blooded animals have arisen from one living filament, which THE GREAT FIRST CAUSE endued with animality, with the power of acquiring new parts, . . . possessing the faculty of continuing to improve by its own inherent activity, and of delivering down those improvements by generation to its posterity, world without end!' Passage scored. 2-1 Erasmus Darwin 1794-96, 1:514. 'The formation of the organs of sexual

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F1925 Book: Keynes, Richard Darwin ed. 1988. Charles Darwin's Beagle Diary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Text Image PDF

an immense distance a Gaucho told me, that he was once riding with an Indian a few miles to the North of the R. Colorado when the latter began making the same noise which is usual at the first sight of the tree, putting his hand to his head then in the direction of the Sierra. Upon being asked the reason of this the Indian said |341| in broken Spanish first see the Sierra . This likewise would render it probable that the utility of a distant landmark is the first cause of its adoration. About two

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F3275 Book: Gregorio, Mario A. -Di, ed. 1990. Charles Darwin's marginalia, vol. 1. Edited by Mario A. Di Gregorio, with the assistance of N.W. Gill. New York; London: Garland. Text Image PDF

amuse persons even if it causes laughter - a bore might interrupt the train yet not cause Laughter or enough anger to take off superfluous nervous power 15-18m/15 ..., / 37^^, wb Use of voice goes with pleasure by calling social members to each other - to parents - to other sex. 116 wt [Can any idea or remembrance stimulate or depress the brain - does it not first act on the circulatory system this excite or depress the brain??] l-3w [As hurting a nerve does so, probably it can] 22~27m/24u

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A1283 Periodical contribution: Wyhe, John van. 2011. Was Charles Darwin an Atheist? The public domain review (28 July). Text PDF

rather impossibility of conceiving this immense and wonderful universe, including man with his capacity of looking far backwards and far into futurity, as the result of blind chance or necessity. When thus reflecting I feel compelled to look to a First Cause having an intelligent mind in some degree analogous to that of man; and I deserve to be called a Theist. This conclusion was strong in my mind about the time, as far as I can remember, when I wrote the Origin of Species; and it is since