> Dennis Durst asked, in response to my initial post in which I
> commented on Darwin's last line in The Origin of Species:
>
> Which edition of the _Origin_ did you have in mind, or did
> the last line remain constant throughout all editions?
>
> I found this to be an interesting question. A search of the OSU library
Wow, you mean you came all the way to Ohio State just to go to the
library. What dedication ;-).
> revealed that the line is present in all editions owned by OSU. Since all
> the books are not in the best of shape it was hard, in some cases, to
tell
> which edition I was examining and there are probably some of the editions
> that OSU does not own. One item of interest is that, as far as I could
> tell, the word "Creator" appears in a second (or later) printing of the
> first edition but was not in the original version. "Creator" was
present in
> all the other editions I found. My own copy is the sixth edition.
Penguin Classics uses the first edition which does not contain "by a
Creator". Here's how it goes:
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 most wonderful
have been, and are being, evolved.
I was really surprised the first time I read this since I had seen
the quote containing "by a Creator" so many times. I recall hearing
someone say that Darwin inserted this later as a concession to his
"critics". Anyone happen to know anything more about this?
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Brian Harper |
Associate Professor | "It is not certain that all is uncertain,
Applied Mechanics | to the glory of skepticism" -- Pascal
Ohio State University |
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