Seite - 452 - in The Origin of Species
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452 ORIGIN OF SPECIES
that minerals and the elemental substances can be thus ar-
ranged. In this case there is of course no relation to gene-
alogical succession, and no cause can at present be assigned
for their falling into groups. But with organic beings the
case is different, and the view above given accords with their
natural arrangement in group under group; and no other
explanation has ever been attempted.
Naturalists, as we have seen, try to arrange the species,
genera, and families in each class, on what is called the
Natural System, But what is meant by this system? Some
authors look at it merely as a scheme for arranging together
those living objects which are most alike, and for separating
those which are most unlike
; or as an artificial method of
enunciating, as briefly as possible, general propositions,—
that is, by one sentence to give the characters common, foi;
instance, to all mammals, by another those common to all
carnivora, by another those common to the dog-genus, and
then, by adding a single sentence, a full description is given
of each kind of dog. The ingenuity and utility of this system
are indisputable. But many naturalists think that something
more is meant by the Natural System; they believe that it
reveals the plan of the Creator
; that unless it be specified
whether order in time or space, or both, or what else is meant
by the plan of the Creator, it seems to me that nothing is
thus added to our knowledge. Expressions such as that fa-
mous one by Linnaeus, which we often meet with in a more
or less concealed form, namely, that the characters do not
make the genus, but that the genus gives the characters, seem
to imply that some deeper bond is included in our classifica-
tions than mere resemblance. I believe that this is the case,
and that community of descent—the one known cause of close
similarity in organic beings—is the bond, which though ob-
served by various degrees of modification, is partially re-
vealed to us by our classifications.
Let us now consider the rules followed in classification,
and the difficulties which are encountered on the view that
classification either gives some unknown plan of creation, or
is simply a scheme for enunciating general propositions and
of placing together the forms most like each other. It might
have been thought (and was in ancient times thought) that
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Buch The Origin of Species"
The Origin of Species
- Titel
- The Origin of Species
- Autor
- Charles Darwin
- Verlag
- P. F. Collier & Son
- Ort
- New York
- Datum
- 1909
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- PD
- Abmessungen
- 10.5 x 16.4 cm
- Seiten
- 568
- Schlagwörter
- Evolutionstheorie, Evolution, Theory of Evolution, Naturwissenschaft, Natural Sciences
- Kategorien
- International
- Naturwissenschaften Biologie
Inhaltsverzeichnis
- EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 5
- AN HISTORICAL SKETCH of the Progress of Opinion on the Origin of Species 9
- INTRODUCTION 21
- Variation under Domestication 25
- Variation under Nature 58
- Struggle for Existence 76
- Natural Selection; or the Survival of the Fittest 93
- Laws of Variation 145
- Difficulties of the Theory 178
- Miscellaneous Objections to the Theory of Natural Selection 219
- Instinct 262
- Hybridism 298
- On the Imperfection of the Geological Record 333
- On the Geological Succession of Organic Beinss 364
- Geographical Distribution 395
- Geographical Distribution - continued 427
- Mutual Affinities of Organic Beings: Morphology: Embryology: Rudimentary Organs 450
- Recapitulation and Conclusion 499
- GLOSSARY 531
- INDEX 541