We know the Origin was written in a hurry, but there’s nothing hurried about it. A mere ‘Abstract’ of a larger work that was never to be completed, the book reads like what it is: the mature product of an immense amount of painstaking observation, thought and reflection. Clearly, Darwin wants us to know this. The very first paragraph of the Introduction outlines his path to the Origin over a quarter of a century: “I hope that I may be excused for entering on these personal details”, he writes, “as I give them to show that I have not been hasty in coming to a decision.” Here’s the first (but is it really the first? — see below!) of many occasions in the Origin where Darwin displays an acute awareness of his audience, together with a fine ability to anticipate and disarm potential critics.
The frontispiece to the first edition of On the Origin of Species (click here to view the full page via Darwin Online).
As I re-read the Origin, I’m going to be looking particularly at the way Darwin crafts his case for evolution by natural selection in an effort to make it as persuasive as possible to as many people as possible. From his private letters and notebooks, we know he was keenly conscious of how controversial his views would be; indeed, in the notebooks of the late-1830s and early-1840s he often rehearsed the kinds of arguments and even the individual words and phrases that he should use when it came time to publish his theory. By the time he sat down to write the Origin, then, Darwin was extremely well prepared with a battery of argumentative devices and techniques all designed to make the (bitter?) pill of evolution by natural selection easier to swallow.
Here’s a great example of one of Darwin’s devices, just to get us going. In the frontispiece of the first edition of the Origin, we find quotations from two other authors: the 19th century philosopher and historian of science William Whewell (pronounced “hew-el”); and the 17th century philosopher and statesman Francis Bacon.
“But with regard to the material world, we can at least go so far as this—we can perceive that events are brought about not by insulated interpositions of Divine power, exerted in each particular case, but by the establishment of general laws.”
W. WHEWELL: Bridgewater Treatise.
“To conclude, therefore, let no man out of a weak conceit of sobriety, or an ill-applied moderation, think or maintain, that a man can search too far or be too well studied in the book of God’s word, or in the book of God’s works; divinity or philosophy; but rather let men endeavour an endless progress or proficience in both.”
BACON: Advancement of Learning.
More than two centuries separate these quotes, but they have a common theme: natural theology, or the attempt to explain the ways of God by reason and evidence. Darwin quotes Bacon on the subject of the “two books” of God’s revelation to humankind — the book of his words (Scripture), and the book of his works (nature); and he quotes Whewell to the effect that God’s preferred way of operating in the natural world is through the establishment of general laws rather than what Whewell calls “insulated interpositions of Divine power” (read: miracles).
Why does Charles Darwin in 1859 position himself next to the 19th-century Whewell (left) and the 17th-century Bacon (right)?.
Why does Darwin do this? Why does he give these particular authors such a prominent place in the Origin? The answer, it seems to me, is perfectly clear: he wants to pre-empt theological objections to his ideas by placing evolution by natural selection squarely within the conventional framework for natural history in mid-Victorian Britain, which is natural theology. He’s trying to smooth some easily ruffled feathers; to reassure the religiously orthodox among his readers that what he’s doing in the Origin — extending the domain of natural law to include the diversity of life — is perfectly consistent with what religiously orthodox naturalists and philosophers have been doing for many, many years.
Is he sincere? Does he actually agree with Whewell and Bacon? Does he really believe that evolution by natural selection is a general law established by God for populating the earth with a great variety of life? Before leaping to easy answers here, we should recall that Darwin himself was trained in the tradition of natural theology (he read William Paley’s famous “Natural Theology” as a student at Cambridge), and that his personal views on religion evolved gradually through the course of his life. On the face of it, though, there’s an obvious case to be made that the Origin is the last and greatest work of Victorian natural theology!