Darwin, The origin of species

The main characters of the debate on the origin of life, that mystery of the mysteries 1, as
John Hershel2 had called it, are presented in the very first page of the test. Evolutionism
was in the air those years. During the first decade of the XIXth century, the French
naturalist Jean-Baptiste Lamark and Erasmus Darwin, Charles's grandfather, claimed that
animals and plants were not under the control of a divine creator but changes and
transformations were emerged spontaneously from inorganic matter. In 1844 the
publication, anonymously, of the Vestige of natural history of creation spread overall the
debate about evolutionism and creationism and brought again under the light the
controversy between Carl Linneus and George Buffon of the previous century. Vestiges
states that everything, and a fortiori mankind, has originated from a primordial clay and
that the whole components of the natural world are subjected to spontaneous
transformations. The active and creative God was now leaving the stage. Furthermore, the
Malthusian theory of the fighting for survival in social life was present in every debate
regarding social and natural sciences. There was a lot of evolutionism around for those
who had eyes to see it.3
The historical background in which Darwin's work develops is the Victorian age and the
British industrial revolution of the XIXth century. The Victorian era formally begins in
1837 and ends in 1901, coinciding with queen Victorias kingdom. These years are
characterized by a large expansion of the British imperial power, reflecting in a period of
strong transformations of British society and British landscape. The upcoming of a new
working class, due to the fast industrialization of the cities; the new born railway system
and the introduction of the post stamp made radical changes on the way people
communicated and moved themselves from one place to another. The year 1837 sees
another important revolution: Rowland Hills postal reform drastically changed the
circulation of letters and packages from all over the world. Darwin was one of the biggest
users of the brand new postal service4. Moreover, the achievements in the graphic
industry helped the diffusion on a larger and faster scale of books and magazines, and,
therefore, supported the growth of the audience. The number of people dedicated to the
study of natural history grew significantly and thus the quality and the quantity of the
researches about the subject. Besides that the colonial expansion of these decades made
possible the discovery of new animals, plants and fossils, before unknown in Europe.
Darwin has elaborated his theory on the origin of life after his 5 years journey around the
world in the south hemisphere. In 1844 the ideas are pretty much settled. But it will take
15 years before the publication of his book. The reasons for this delay are quite easy to
guess: Darwin was conscious of the revolutionary content of his thesis. The society at the
time was still permeated with religious dogmas and the Anglican Church was still deeply
Darwin, C. (1876). The origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured
races in the struggle for life. London: Murray. 6th ed., with additions and corrections. F401 (final text).
Available at http://darwin-online.org.uk/converted/pdf/1876_Origin_F401.pdf [Accessed 24 October 2014].
2
LetterwrittentoLyellin1836.
3
Browne,J.(2002).Abiography.Vol2:Thepowerofplace.Princeton:PrincetonUniversityPress
4
.Browne,J.(2002).Ibidem.
1

welded: creationism was still the official answer to the origin of life and beings. He could
have been considered an atheist and his work regarded as blasphemous. As pointed out by
Janet Browne in Darwins Origin of species (2006), the human evolution process is
intentionally not mentioned. The author doesnt discuss either the divine presence in the
natural world, or the origin of life.5 Hence, Darwin's meticulous researches, sometimes
tending to maniac, in order to adduce proofs and empirical facts to corroborate his thesis.
His constant reviews, editions and his enormous correspondence. It is exactly with a
letter and a small package that the story drastically changes. It is a morning of June 1858
when the postman appears at Darwins door. Alfred Russel Wallace, explorer and
naturalist, is writing to him form Ternare, an island in the East Indian Dutch colonies.
Darwin had asked Wallace in some previous letters to send him the skin of some
Malaysian poultry. He must have been excited in opening that package. However, inside
the box there was no any skin but a manuscript on the origin of species titled On the
Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinetely for the Original Type. It explained with the
clear words that Darwin hadnt found yet the evolutionist theory and the natural selection
principle. It must have been a severe shock for him to receive a text with such similar
ideas to his own. He had told about his convictions in strict terms only to his friends Lyell
and Hooker, who will also play two important roles in the publication of Darwins work
of a lifetime. Darwin is a man of stable knights values. In the correspondence of that year
comes out the deep internal tirade between the will of being the father of evolutionism
and the intellectual honesty for Wallaces precedence. Even though he had developed the
theory in the previous fifteen years, Wallace finalized it before. The vicissitude of that
year ends in a joint paper presented to the Linnean Society in 1858 by Lyell and Hooker.
The primacy and supremacy of Darwin over Wallace was finally established.
The completed work, definitively titled The origin of species by means of natural
selection, or the preservation of favored races in the struggle for life, was published the
following year, 1859. Darwins masterpiece is a result of a collective work: the whole
family and friends have collaborated with him. The struggle for finding the right words
and terms is testified in the letters of that year. What is the best way to describe this
power and force permeating the development of species through the natural history? Is it
a preservation of the favorable individual differences and variations or an adaptation or
adjustment to the environment? This principle, slowly and deeply effective in the natural
world, has both these sides. It will replace the active power of Deity 6 and it will be then
called Natural Selection or the survival of the fittest, which is the Malthusian doctrine
applied to natural and vegetal world7.

Rebecca Cacioli
9/11/2014

Browne,J.(2006)DarwinsOriginofSpecies.London:AtlanticBooks.
Darwin,C(1876).Ibidem.
7
Darwin,C(1876).Ibidem.
5
6