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World of Life manuscript

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World of Life manuscript. Two page manuscript copy of what appears to have been an address of some sort apparently given around fifty years after the
Show moreWorld of Life manuscript. Two page manuscript copy of what appears to have been an address of some sort apparently given around fifty years after the publication of Darwin's 'Origin'. Transcription: "The World of Life My Subject this evening is the vast World of Life - life, which pervades alike the Earth the water and the air - life, which is ever coming to an end and ever [] itself - life, which is manifested in an endless variety of forms all of which though seeming to us to be fixed and stable, are yet slowly changing, and have been ever changing throughout the unimaginable remote eras of geological history. My object is, to fix your imagination upon the grandeur of this life world of which we ourselves form a part and on which we depend absolutely for the possibility of life; to impress upon you the immensity of the scale on which Nature works in sustaining and modifying these varied life-forms; and, especially, to make it clear to you, that no theory or explanation of Nature's method in the continuous development of these life-forms can have the slightest value, which does not, at every step of the process, take full account of this immensity, as an essential factor in the process of modification. My claim is that Darwinism is the one and only theory yet put forward which fully satisfies these conditions; it is also one of the most simple and easy of comprehension in the whole range of science; yet, after fifty years of continuous exposition, none is so widely and persistently misunderstood. It is not my intention to combat these various misapprehensions in detail, but it is my hope, if I can succeed in placing the subject before (2.a)"
The Robert M. Stecher Collection of Charles Darwin Books and Manuscripts
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http://hdl.handle.net/2186/ksl:ditalldar00150