Page - 7 - in The Origin of Species

INTRODUCTORY NOTE 7 the month of previous March on character of South American fossils, and species on Galapagos Archipelago. These facts (especially latter) origin of all my views." Again, "In October (1838), that vs fifteen months after I had begun my systematic inquiry, I happened tr> read for amusement 'Malthus on Popu- lation,' and being well prepared to appreciate the struggle for existence which everywhere goes on from long-continued ob- servation of the habits of animals and plants, it at once struck me that under these circumstances favorable variations would tend to be preserved, and unfavorable ones to be destroyed. The result of this zvould be the formation of new species. Here then I had at laist got a theory by which to work." From these statements by Darwin himself we can see how far it is from being the case that he merely gathered the ripe fruit of the labors of his predecessors. All progress is continuous, and Darwin, like other men, built on the foundations laid by others; but to say this is not to deny him originality in the only vital -sense of that word. And the importance of his contribution —in verifying the doctrine of descent, in interpreting and apply- ing it, and in revealing its bearings on all departments of the investigation of nature—is proved by the fact that his work opened a new epoch in science and philosophy. As Huxley said, "Whatever be the ultimate verdict of posterity upon this or that opinion which Mr. Darwin has propounded; whatever adumbra- tions or anticipations of his doctrines may be found in the writ- ings of his predecessors; the broad fact remains that, since the publication and by reason of the publication of 'The Origin of Species' the fundamental conceptions and the aims of the students of living Nature have been completely changed." The present year (1909) has seen the celebration of the hun- dredth anniversary of Darwin's birth and the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of his great work. Among the numerous ex- pressions of honor and gratitude which the world of science has poured upon his memory, none is more significant than the vol- ume on "Darwin and Modern Science" which has been issued by the press of his old University of Cambridge. In this are col- lected nearly thirty papers by the leaders of modern science dealing with the influence of Darwin upon various fields of thought and research, and with the later developments and modi- fications of his conclusions. Biology, in many different depart-