Origin of Species… • Historical sketch… (19)

≣  •  D a r w i n  (1 8 5 9,  1 8 7 2⁶)  •  … o f  t h e  p r o g r e s s  o f  o p i n i o n …  •  √it

---

In 1852 M. Naudin, a distinguished botanist, expressly stated, in an admirable paper on the Origin of Species (‹Revue Horticole›, p. 102; since partly republished in the ‹Nouvelles Archives du Muséum›, tom. i. p. 171), his belief that species are formed in an analogous manner as varieties are under cultivation; and the latter process he attributes to man’s power of selection. But he does not show how selection acts under nature. He believes, like Dean Herbert, that species, when nascent, were more plastic than at present. He lays weight on what he calls the principle of finality, “puissance mystérieuse, indéterminée; fatalité pour les uns; pour les autres, volonté providentielle, dont l’action incessante sur les êtres vivants détermine, à toutes les époques de l’existence du monde, la forme, le volume, et la durée de chacun d’eux, en raison de sa destinée dans l’ordre de choses dont il fait partie. C’est cette puissance qui harmonise chaque membre à l’ensemble en l’appropriant à la fonction qu’il doit remplir dans l’organisme général de la nature, fonction qui est pour lui sa raison d’être” [*].

______
NOTES
¯¯¯¯¯¯

[*]. From references in Bronn’s ‹Untersuchungen über die Entwickelungs-Gesetze›, it appears that the celebrated botanist and paleontologist Unger published, in 1852, his belief that species undergo development and modification. Dalton, likewise, in Pander and Dalton’s work on Fossil Sloths, expressed, in 1821, a similar belief. Similar views have, as is well known, been maintained by Oken in his mystical ‹Natur-philosophie›. From other references in Godron’s work ‹Sur l’Espèce›, it seems that Bory St. Vincent, Burdach, Poiret, and Fries, have all admitted that new species are continually being produced.

I may add, that of the thirty-four authors named in this Historical Sketch, who believe in the modification of species, or at least disbelieve in separate acts of creation, twenty-seven have written on special branches of natural history or geology.

___________
KEY_WORDS
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

◊ authp_C_h_a_r_l_e_s_D_a_r_w_i_n
◊ authp_C_h_D_a_r_w_i_n
◊ authp_D_a_r_w_i_n
◊ cover_O_r_i_g_i_n_o_f_S_p_e_c_i_e_s
◊ edit_J_o_h_n_M_u_r_r_a_y
◊ edit_J_M_u_r_r_a_y
◊ edit_M_u_r_r_a_y
◊ yauth_1_8_5_9, yauth_1_8_7_2, yedit_1_8_7_2
◊ book_quote, lantxt_en, hdr_v2
◊ orig_error (ⁿ)

• keywords_da_inserire

_____
[]  C h.  D a r w i n,  ‹T h e  O r i g i n  o f  S p e c i e s›,  J o h n  M u r r a y,  1 8 7 2⁶.
¯¯¯¯¯