Free Nineteenth Century Thought by Anand Prakash

Mark
such conceptual words in this sentence as 'affinity,'   'distribution' and 'succession.' These point
towards a methodology.
    5.    A
separate act of creation: An effective blow to religious
thought according to which life is an act of creation rather than a part of the
evolutionary process.
    6.       Quadrumana : Animal
with four hands.
    7.       Analogous
facts: Comparable, similar points of observation or
characteristics. Modern critical theory sometimes uses the concept of
'analogous.'
    8.       Progenitor: Ancestor. The word is descriptive without any general
or mythical suggestions.
    9.       Homologies: Correspondences. Ref. n. 4 and 7.
    10.    In
their proper position in the zoological series: The
statement connects with the scientific methods of the nineteenth century.
'Proper' means open to change since science has the options open on facts and
observations where a good deal of shuffling and reordering is done as a matter
of course.
     
    We
thus learn that man is descended from a hairy quadruped, furnished with .a tail
and pointed ears, probably arboreal 11 in its habits, and an
inhabitant of the Old World. This creature, if its whole structure had been
examined by a naturalist, would have been classed amongst the Quadrumana , as surely as would the common and still more
ancient progenitor of the Old and New World monkeys. The Quadrumana and all the higher mammals are probably derived from an ancient marsupial 12 animal,
and this through a long line of diversified forms 13 , either
from some reptile-like or some amphibian-like creature, and this again
from   some fish-like animal. 14 In the dim obscurity of the past we can see that the early progenitor of
all   the   Vertebrata 15 must have been an aquatic animal 16 , provided with branchae , with the two sexes united
in the same individual, and with the most important organs of the body (such as
the brain and heart) imperfectly developed. This animal seems to have been more
like the larvae of our existing marine ascidians 17 than any
other known form.* * *
    Sexual
selection 18 has been treated
at great length in these volumes; for, as I have attempted to show, it has
played an important part in the history of the organic world. * * *
    The
belief in the power of sexual selection rests chiefly on the following
considerations. The characters 19 which we have the best reason
for supposing to have been thus acquired are confined to one sex; and this
alone renders it probable that they are in some way connected with the act of
reproduction.
    ANNOTATIONS
    11.       Arboreal: Living
in or connected with trees.
    12.       Marsupial: Incompletely
developed and suckled in a pouch. Comes from biological history.
    13.       A long line of diversified forms: Darwin's
open-ended guesswork based on studies of life's evolutionary process.
    14.       Some reptile-like or some
amphibian-like creature and this again from some fish-like animal: The
style and tone characteristic of a scientist groping for clues and answers.
    15.       Vertebra: Back-bone.
    16.       An aquatic animal, provided with branchae : A creature living in water and
having gills.
    17.       Marine ascidians: A
sea-animal of hard rubbery skin.
    18.       Sexual selection: This
is a theoretical category as well as a pioneering idea of great significance.
    19.       Characers : Features,
attributes and characteristics.
     
    . These characters in innumerable instances are fully
developed only at maturity; and often during only a part of the year, which is
always the breedi.ng season. The males (passing over a few exceptional cases)
are the most active in courtship; they are the best armed, and are rendered the
most attractive in various ways. It is to be especially observed that the males
display their attractions with elaborate care in the presence of the females;
and that they rarely or never display them excepting during the season of