"When on board H.M.S. Beagle as naturalist, I was much struck with certain facts in the distribution of the organic beings inhabiting South America, and in the geological relations of the present to the past inhabitants of that continent. These facts, as will be seen in the latter chapters of this volume, seemed to throw some light on the origin of species- that mystery of mysteries, as it has been called by one of our greatest philosophers. On my return home, it occurred to me, in 1837, that something might perhaps be made out on this question by patiently accumulating and reflecting on all sorts of facts which could possibly have any …show more content…
All of whom saw the variation caused by breeding or artificial selection to acquire a desired trait. Darwin just had to puzzle together the missing pieces and voila. He proves evolution.
Sounds simple in theory, but the amount of investigation Darwin put forth is astonishing. If you read On the Origin of Species, it feels like a journey as Darwin starts with the simple foundation of his ideas and expands into a masterpiece of scientific evidence.
It is also worth noting how modest and humble Darwin was. He always had an open mind knowing that we know so little on the origin of species and life. Therefore, we shouldn’t align our views strictly to one belief.
In 1871, Darwin published The Descent of Man in which Darwin takes his evolutionary theories a step further and imposes them on man. Basically, investigating if man is comes from a “pre-existing form” which he confirms with compelling evidence. He also acknowledges that natural selection does not apply to the societies of man.
In a chapter titled On the Races of Man, Darwin entertains the misconception that human races are different species by looking at evidence on both sides of the argument. He ultimately concludes that human races are all the same species because of stronger evidence suggesting