Important Quotations Explained
1. How have
all those exquisite adaptations of one part of the organisation
to another part, and to the conditions of life, and of one distinct
organic being to another being, been perfected? We see these beautiful
co-adaptations most plainly in the woodpecker and missletoe; and
only a little less plainly in the humblest parasite which clings
to the hairs of a quadruped or feather of a bird; . . . in short,
we see beautiful adaptation everywhere and in every part of the organic
world.
This quotation from Chapter III addresses
the way in which variations in a species influence the “perfect”
adaptation of an organism to its environment. In the previous two
chapters, Darwin explains the different types of variations seen
in plants and animals that help scientists distinguish between varieties
and species (although Darwin argues that the distinction between
the two categories is fundamentally arbitrary). In this quotation,
he says that these variations not only produce distinct varieties
of species but also create species that are uniquely adapted to
their environments. Woodpeckers, mistletoe plants, and parasites
have adapted structures (the beaks of woodpeckers, for example)
that allow them to maximize their access to nutrients and therefore
to survive. The term “co-adaptations” implies that species adapt
to one another. For example, the hair or feathers of animals adapt
the texture that allows a parasite to cling. Variations, therefore,
cannot be random.
2. How fleeting
are the wishes and efforts of man! how short his time! and consequently
how poor will his products be, compared with those accumulated by
nature during whole geological periods. Can we wonder, then, that
nature’s productions should be far “truer” in character than man’s productions;
that they should be infinitely better adapted to the most complex
conditions of life, and should plainly bear the stamp of far higher
workmanship?
This quotation, from Chapter IV, compares
the use of artificial selection by breeders to the process of natural
selection. Darwin explains in Chapter I how breeders can shape their
domestic breeds by selecting individual animals with desired characteristics
and breeding them more often to perpetuate those characteristics
in future generations. While breeder selection may result in a more desirable
domestic species, Darwin argues in this quotation that breeder selection
cannot hold a candle to the wonders of natural selection. Natural
selection has “whole geological periods” in which to do its work,
as opposed to the mere human lifetime a man has. In addition, natural
selection creates species that are much more highly and complexly
adapted to their natural environments, a feat that mere men cannot
accomplish on their own. Darwin acclaims the power of nature to
shape such perfect species. Still, the last phrase in this passage—“the
stamp of far higher workmanship”—adds ambiguity. Is “higher workmanship”
the work of nature or the work of a divine power? Darwin leaves
room for interpretation here—perhaps a wise move, given the religious
and scientific climate of the time.
3. To admit
this view is, as it seems to me, to reject a real for an unreal,
or at least for an unknown, cause. It makes the work of God a mere
mockery and deception; I would almost as soon believe with the old
and ignorant cosmogonists, that fossil shells had never lived, but
had been created in stone so as to mock the shells now living on
the sea-shore.
In this quotation, from Chapter V, Darwin
takes on naturalists who believe that each species was independently
created. He has just presented evidence that species must have descended
from one another. Specifically, he has shown that color patterns
appearing in varieties of horses often mimic the color patterns
of zebras and horses, which illustrates that all may have descended
from the same parent species. Darwin says that some naturalists
will not believe this claim and will argue that variations occur
in all species and do not prove that one species descended from
the other. In this quotation, Darwin challenges the scientific validity
of these dissenters’ claims; he provides scientific reasoning, while
they provide none. The last sentence of this passage suggests that
it is ridiculous to claim that species similarities are mere coincidence.
By calling these similarities “the work of God,” Darwin also challenges
the notion that only the theory of independent creation acknowledges
the existence of a divine power. Natural selection, Darwin implies,
may also be the work of a higher power. To ignore his theory may
be as much an affront to God as some say the theory itself is.
4. What can
be more curious than that the hand of a man, formed for grasping,
that of a mole for digging, the leg of the horse, the paddle of
the porpoise, and the wing of the bat, should all be constructed
on the same pattern, and should include the same bones, in the same
relative positions?
This passage, from Chapter XIII, argues
that similar bone and body structures in different species illustrate
how species may have evolved from a common parent species. The hands
of men, the paws of moles, the legs of horses, the paddles of porpoises,
and the wings of bats all have the same placement in the body, as
well as the same bone structure. However, these structures have
evolved differently, creating hands, paws, paddles, and wings. And
the divergence of each is particularly well suited to the species
to which it belongs: Humans can grasp, porpoises can swim, and bats
can fly. In this quotation, Darwin suggests that all of these structures
may have evolved from the same structure of the original species,
and that natural selection perpetuated the variations that have
turned that original structure into the structures of today. Darwin’s
mention of human hands is controversial, as it explicitly suggests
that humans are subject to descent with modification.
5. There
is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having
been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that,
whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law
of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful
and wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.
This passage from Chapter XIV concludes The
Origin of Species. After summarizing his theory of natural
selection, Darwin returns here to the theme of the wonder of nature.
The “beautiful and wonderful” forms that natural selection has created
illustrate nature’s power. The imagery in this passage evokes the
naturalness of natural selection itself. Just as the planet cycles
naturally, “according to the fixed law of gravity,” so too does
nature select and shape species into their divergent forms. It is
in this passage, most importantly, that Darwin finally uses the
word “evolved” to describe his theory of descent with modification.
The use of this word links Darwin’s theory to past theories of evolution.
Significantly, Darwin once again leaves room for a creator in the
formation of species. The image of someone “breathing life” into
the original species is a direct allusion to biblical notions of
creation.