50 quotes
We are drawn on to the supposition, that the first step in the creation of life upon this planet was a chemico-electric operation, by which simple germinal vesicles were produced.
Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (1844)
Let the reconciliation of whatever is true in my views with whatever is true in other systems come about in the fulness of calm and careful inquiry.
Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (1844)
Of late years... it has been successfully shewn that the human race might have had one origin, for anything that can be inferred from external peculiarities.
Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (1844)
We cannot doubt after what we know of the power of heat that the nebulous form of matter was attended by the condition of a very high temperature.
Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (1844)
My sincere desire in the composition of the book was to give the true view of the history of nature, with as little disturbance as possible to existing beliefs, whether philosophical or religious.
Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (1844)
One important remark has been made, that a comparatively small variety of species is found in the older rocks, although of some particular ones the remains are very abundant...
Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (1844)
The monkeys themselves, without instruction from any quarter, learn to use sticks in fighting, and some build houses—an act which cannot in their case be considered as one of instinct, but of intelligence.
Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (1844)
I may here refer to a curious mathematical calculation by Dr. Thomas Young, to the effect, that if three words coincide in two different languages, it is ten to one they must be derived in both cases from some parent language, or introduced in some other manner.
Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (1844)
The first idea which all this impresses upon us is, that the formation of bodies in space is still and at present in progress. We live at a time when many have been formed and many are still forming.
Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (1844)
I cannot but here remind the reader of what Dr. Wiseman has shewn so strikingly in his lectures, how different new philosophic doctrines are apt to appear after we have become somewhat familiar with them.
Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (1844)
The nobler orders of being, including man himself, were contemplated from the first, and came into existence by virtue of a law, the operation of which had commenced ages before their forms were realized.
Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (1844)
It must be borne in mind that the gestation of a single organism is the work of but a few days, weeks, or months, but the gestation (so to speak) of a whole creation is a matter probably involving enormous spaces of time.
Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (1844)
There are nations, such as the inhabitants of Hindostan, known to be one in descent which nevertheless, contain groups of people of almost all shades of color, and likewise discrepant in other of those important features on which much stress has been laid.
Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (1844)
We are ignorant of the laws of variety-production; but we see it going on as a principle in nature, and it is obviously favorable to the supposition that all the great families of men are of one stock.
Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (1844)
Some other idea must then be come to with regard to the mode in which the Divine Author proceeded in the organic creation. Let us seek in the history of the earth's formation for a new suggestion on this point.
Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (1844)
When we hear of carbon beginning to appear in the ascending series of rocks, we are unavoidably led to consider it as marking a time of some importance in the earth's history, a new era of natural conditions, one in which organic life has probably played a part.
Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (1844)
Thus we give, as is meet, a respectful reception to what is revealed through the medium of nature, at the same time that we fully reserve our reverence for all we have been accustomed to hold sacred, not one tittle of which it may ultimately be found necessary to alter.
Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (1844)
Analogy would lead us to conclude that the combinations of the primordial matter, forming our so-called elements, are as universal or as liable to take place everywhere as are the laws of gravitation and centrifugal force.
Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (1844)
The evidence of the existence of other astral systems besides our own is much more decided than might be expected when we consider that the nearest of them must needs be placed at a mighty interval beyond our own.
Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (1844)
The same law of development presides over the vegetable kingdom. ...where a special function is required for particular circumstances, nature has provided for it, not by a new organ, but by a modification of a common one, which she has effected in development.
Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (1844)