ent of the Queen from the
venturers of the 2d of December. In this thought, at the moment, he
stood almost alone; but he abided his time. At length he saw the
spring of 1853, bringing with it grave peril to the Ottoman State.
Then, throwing aside with a laugh some papers which belonged to the
Home Office, he gave his strong shoulder to the leveling work. Under
the weight of his touch the barrier fell. Thenceforth the hindrances
that met him were but slight. As he from the first had willed it, so
moved the two great nations of the West.

CHARLES DARWIN

Born in 1809, died in 1882; grandson of Erasmus Darwin;
educated at Edinburgh and Cambridge; went around the world
on a scientific expedition in 1831-36; settled in Kent in
1842 and thenceforth devoted his life to scientific
research; published "The Origin of Species" in 1859, "The
Descent of Man" in 1871, "The Emotions of Man and Animals"
in 1872.

I

ON VARIATIONS IN MAMMALS, BIRDS AND FISHES[17]

Not only the various domestic races, but the most distinct genera and
orders within the same great class--for instance, mammals, birds,
reptiles, and fishes--are all the descendants of one common
progenitor, and we must admit that the whole vast amount of difference
between these forms has primarily arisen from simple variability. To
consider the subject under this point of view is enough to strike one
dumb with amazement. But our amazement ought to be lessened when we
reflect that beings almost infinite in number, during an almost
infinite lapse of time, have often had their whole organization
rendered in some degree plastic, and that each slight modification of
structure which was in any way beneficial under excessively complex
conditions of life has been preserved, while each which was in any
way injurious has been rigorously destroyed. And the long-continued
accumulation of beneficial variations will infallibly have led to
structures as diversified, as beautifully adapted for various
purposes, and as excellently coordinated as we see in the animals and
plants around us. Hence I have spoken of selection as the paramount
power, whether applied by man to the formation of domestic breeds, or
by nature to the production of species. If an architect were to rear a
noble and commodious edifice without the use of cut stone, by
selecting from the fragments at the base of a precipice wedge-formed
stones for his arches, elongate