Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- MEMOIR
- Hybridisation and Cross-breeding as a Method of Scientific Investigation
- Problems of Heredity as a subject for Horticultural Investigation
- An Address on Mendelian Heredity and its application to Man. Delivered before the Neurological Society, London, I. ii. 1906
- Gamete and Zygote. A Lay Discourse. The Henry Sidgwick Memorial Lecture, 1917
- Heredity and Variation in Modern Lights
- Presidential Address to the Zoological Section, British Association: Cambridge Meeting, 1904
- Presidential Address to the Agricultural Subsection, British Association: Portsmouth Meeting, 1911
- Presidential Address to the British Association, Australia: (a) Melbourne Meeting, 1914. (b) Sydney Meeting, 1914
- The Methods and Scope of Genetics. Inaugural Lecture delivered 23 October 1908. Cambridge
- Biological Fact and the Structure of Society. The Herbert Spencer Lecture, 28 February 1912. Oxford
- Science and Nationality. Presidential Address delivered at the Inaugural Meeting of the Yorkshire Science Association
- Common-sense in Racial Problems. The Galton Lecture
- Evolutionary Faith and Modern Doubts. Address to American Association for the Advancement of Science. Toronto, 1922
- Progress in Biology. An Address delivered March 12, 1924, on the occasion of the Centenary of Birkbeck College, London
- EDUCATIONAL ESSAYS
- REVIEWS
- APPENDIX
- INDEX OF PERSONS
- INDEX OF SUBJECTS
- PLATES I-III (Figs. 1-6) to Mendelian Heredity and its application to Man
Heredity and Variation in Modern Lights
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 September 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- MEMOIR
- Hybridisation and Cross-breeding as a Method of Scientific Investigation
- Problems of Heredity as a subject for Horticultural Investigation
- An Address on Mendelian Heredity and its application to Man. Delivered before the Neurological Society, London, I. ii. 1906
- Gamete and Zygote. A Lay Discourse. The Henry Sidgwick Memorial Lecture, 1917
- Heredity and Variation in Modern Lights
- Presidential Address to the Zoological Section, British Association: Cambridge Meeting, 1904
- Presidential Address to the Agricultural Subsection, British Association: Portsmouth Meeting, 1911
- Presidential Address to the British Association, Australia: (a) Melbourne Meeting, 1914. (b) Sydney Meeting, 1914
- The Methods and Scope of Genetics. Inaugural Lecture delivered 23 October 1908. Cambridge
- Biological Fact and the Structure of Society. The Herbert Spencer Lecture, 28 February 1912. Oxford
- Science and Nationality. Presidential Address delivered at the Inaugural Meeting of the Yorkshire Science Association
- Common-sense in Racial Problems. The Galton Lecture
- Evolutionary Faith and Modern Doubts. Address to American Association for the Advancement of Science. Toronto, 1922
- Progress in Biology. An Address delivered March 12, 1924, on the occasion of the Centenary of Birkbeck College, London
- EDUCATIONAL ESSAYS
- REVIEWS
- APPENDIX
- INDEX OF PERSONS
- INDEX OF SUBJECTS
- PLATES I-III (Figs. 1-6) to Mendelian Heredity and its application to Man
Summary
Darwin's work has the property of greatness in that it may be admired from more aspects than one. For some the perception of the principle of Natural Selection stands out as his most wonderful achievement to which all the rest is subordinate. Others, among whom I would range myself, look up to him rather as the first who plainly distinguished, collected, and comprehensively studied that new class of evidence from which hereafter a true understanding of the process of Evolution may be developed. We each prefer our own standpoint of admiration; but I think that it will be in their wider aspect that his labours will most command the veneration of posterity.
A treatise written to advance knowledge may be read in two moods. The reader may keep his mind passive, willing merely to receive the impress of the writer's thought; or he may read with his attention strained and alert, asking at every instant how the new knowledge can be used in a further advance, watching continually for fresh footholds by which to climb higher still. Of Shelley it has been said that he was a poet for poets: so Darwin was a naturalist for naturalists. It is when his writings are used in the critical and more exacting spirit with which we test the outfit for our own enterprise that we learn their full value and strength.
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- William Bateson, NaturalistHis Essays and Addresses Together with a Short Account of His Life, pp. 215 - 232Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009First published in: 1928
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