I see no good reasons why the views given in this volume should shock the religious views of anyone.

Thomson's views on the recent age of the world have been for some time one of my sorest troubles.

One general law, leading to the advancement of all organic beings, namely, multiply, vary, let the strongest live and the weakest die.

It may be conceit, but I believe the subject will interest the public, and I am sure that the views are original.

Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge.

You will be astonished to find how the whole mental disposition of your children changes with advancing years. A young child and the same when nearly grown, sometimes differ almost as much as do a caterpillar and butterfly.

This preservation of favourable variations and the destruction of injurious variations, I call Natural Selection, or the Survival of the Fittest. Variations neither useful nor injurious would not be affected by natural selection and would be left a fluctuating element.