Alder [In the Woods]’s Reviews > On the Origin of Species > Status Update

“ There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gon on according to the fixed law of gra- vity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.”

“ Therefore I should infer from analogy that probably all the organic beings which have ever lived on this earth have descended from some one primordial form, into which life was first breathed.”

“ Nature may be said to have taken pains to reveal, by rudimentary organs and by homologous structures, her scheme of modification, which it seems
that we wilfully will not understand.”

“ An organ serving for two purposes, may become rudimentary or utterly aborted for one, even the more important purpose; and remain perfectly efficient for the other.”

I've barely read anything 😀

“Why, it may be asked, has the supposed creative force produced bats and no other mammals on remote islands?“