"Evolution" Article - Table of Contents

I. EVOLUTION IN BIOLOGY

Part 1. Evolution in Biology - Introduction.
Part 2. The Evolution of the Individual.
Part 3. The Evolution of the Sum of Living Beings.

II. EVOLUTION IN PHILOSOPHY

[To be added]



The section "Evolution in Biology' in the article "Evolution" was written by Thomas Henry Huxley, M.D., LL.D., F.R.S., President of the Royal Society, 1883-85; Professor of Natural History in the Royal School of Mines, London, 1854; author of Theory of the Vertebrate Skull, The Physical Basis of Life, Introduction to the Classification of Animals, Lay Sermons, Elementary Physiology, etc.



Some Quotations on Evolution

"When we no longer look at an organic being as a savage looks at a ship, as something wholly beyond his comprehension; when we regard every production of nature as one which has had a long history; when we contemplate every complex structure and instinct as the summing up of many contrivances, each useful to the possessor, in the same way as any great mechanical invention is the summing up of the labour, the experience, the reason, and even the blunders of numerous workmen; when we thus view each organic being, how far more interesting -- I speak from experience -- does the study of natural history become!"
-- Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species

"We must, however, acknowledge ... that man with all his noble qualities, with sympathy which feels for the most debased, with benevolence which extends not only to other men but to the humblest living creature, with his god-like intellect which has penetrated into the movements and constitution of the solar system- with all these exalted powers- Man still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin."
-- Charles Darwin, The Descent Of Man

"The formation of different languages and of distinct species and the proofs that both have been developed through a gradual process, are curiously parallel."
-- Charles Darwin, The Desent Of Man