Charles Darwin: Evolution by Natural Selection (British Men of Science) [Hardcover]

Gavin Rylands De Beer (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

“. . . this is an admirable short biography by a master of the subject, balanced, sympathetic--and instructive.”–New Statesman

Product Details

• Hardcover: 290 pages
• Publisher: Greenwood Press Reprint (September 8, 1976)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0837173787
• ISBN-13: 978-0837173788
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,652,601 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A real gem, November 4, 2003

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Bibliophile - See all my reviews

This review is from: Charles Darwin: Evolution by Natural Selection (British Men of Science) (Hardcover)

I was very lucky to find this little book in a used bookstore. Readers who can't get this book from Amazon.com may have to go to the library instead.

Sir Gavin De Beer, an eminent embryologist at University College London, was also a Darwinian scholar of distinction. This book strikes a good balance between Darwin's life and Darwin's thought. Though this book is 40 years old, I don't think there is a better treatment of the subject in a book of comparable size. The biographies by Browne, and Desmond and Moore are mandatory of course but this little book has a unique place of its own.

I end this review with Darwin's philosophy, expressed in some of the most fascinating lines from his personal Notebook and quoted in this book:

"We can allow satellites, planets, suns, universe, nay whole system of universe to be governed by laws, but the smallest insect we wish to be created at once by special act, provided with its instincts, its place in nature, its range, etc."

"Why is thought being a secretion of brain more wonderful than gravity a property of matter?"

"Free will is to mind what chance is to matter; it is our arrogance, our admiration of ourselves."

"Chance governs the descent of a farthing, free will determines our throwing it up."

"It may be doubted whether a man intentionally can wag his finger from real caprice, it is chance which way it will be, but yet it is settled by reason."

"A train of throught action &c. will arise from physical action on the brain."

The amazing fact is that Darwin was writing when our knowledge of the brain and genetics was still sketchy. Darwin was a prophet of genius.