Darwin's Precursors and Influences

Quotes

by John Wilkins

Copyright © 1996-2003

[Last Update: 21 February 2003]

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"No person, not even the most ignorant, could suppose that I meant to arrogate to myself the origination of the doctrine that species had not been independently created. The only novelty in my work is the attempt to show how species become modified, & to a certain extent how the theory of descent explains certain large classes of facts; & in these respects I received no assistance from my predecessors." Letter from Darwin to Baden Powell, dated 7 February 1860. Quoted in de Beer 1959, p52.

"I should be extremely glad now to publish a sketch of my general views in about a dozen pages or so. But I cannot persuade myself that I can do so honourably ... I would far rather burn my whole book than that he or any man should think that I had behaved in a paltry spirit." Letter from Darwin to Lyell, 25 June 1858 after receipt of Wallace's paper, quoted in Desmond and Moore 1991 and Quammen 1996.

"... the questions Darwin asked and the answers he supplied can be understood only in relation to his contemporary background, in large part because of his professional scientific status. He was not a solitary genius, indifferent to and unaffected by the currents around him." Ruse 1979, p32

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