The History of Creation, Vol. 1 (of 2)

The History of Creation, Vol. 1 (of 2) - Or the Development of the Earth and its Inhabitants by the Action of Natural Causes

I am desirous of prefacing the English edition of the History of Creation with a few remarks which may serve to explain the origin and object of this book. In the year 1866 I published, under the title Generelle Morphologie, a somewhat comprehensive work, which constituted the first attempt to apply the general doctrine of development to the whole range of organic morphology (Anatomy and Biogenesis), and thus to make use of the vast march onwards which the genius of Charles Darwin has effected in all biological science by his reform of the Descent Theory and its establishment through the doctrine of selection. At the same time, in the Generelle Morphologie, the first attempt was made to introduce the Descent Theory into the systematic classification of animals and plants, and to found a natural system on the basis of genealogy; that is, to construct hypothetical pedigrees for the various species of organisms. The Generelle Morphologie found but few readers, for which the voluminous and unpopular style of treatment, and its too extensive Greek terminology, may be chiefly to blame. But a proportionately large measure of approval has met xiv the Natrliche Schpfungsgeschichte in Germany. This book took its origin in the shorthand notes of a course of lectures which treated, before a mixed audience and in a popular form, the most important topics discussed in the Generelle Morphologie. The notes were subsequently revised, and received considerable additions. The book appeared first in 1868, its fourth edition in 1873, and has been translated into several languages. I hope that it may also find sympathy in the fatherland of Darwin, the more so since it contains special morphological evidence in favour of many of the important doctrines with which this greatest naturalist of our century has enriched science. Proud as England may be to be called the fatherland of Newton, who, with his law of gravitation, brought inorganic nature under the dominion of natural laws of cause and effect, yet may she with even greater pride reckon Charles Darwin among her sonshe who solved the yet harder problem of bringing the complicated phenomena of organic nature under the sway of the same natural laws. The reproach which is now oftenest made against the Descent Theory is that it is not securely founded, not sufficiently proven. Not only its distinct opponents maintain that there is a want of satisfactory proofs, but even faint-hearted and wavering adherents declare that Darwins hypothesis is still wanting fundamental proof. Neither the former nor the latter estimate rightly the immeasurable weight which the great series of phenomena of comparative anatomy and ontogeny, palontology and taxonomy, chorology and cology, cast into the scale in favour of the doctrine of filiation. Darwins Theory of Selection, which completely explains the origin of species through the combined action of Inheritance xv and Adaptation in the struggle for existence, also appears to these persons not sufficient. They demand, over and above, that the descent of species from common ancestral forms shall be proved in a particular case; that, in contradistinction to the synthetic proofs adduced for the Descent Theory, the analytic proof of the genealogical continuity of the several species shall be brought forward. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 40472
Author: Haeckel, Ernst
Release Date: Aug 14, 2012
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Editor: Lankester, E. Ray (Edwin Ray), Sir, 1847-1929

Translator: Schmitz, L. Dora