Charles Darwin

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Charles Darwin

was born at his famliy home, The Mount, in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England on this day in 1809.

"What can be more curious than that the hand of a man, formed for grasping, that of a mole for digging, the leg of the horse, the paddle of the porpoise, and the wing of the bat, should all be constructed on the same pattern, and should include the same bones, in the same relative positions?" --from THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES (1859) by Charles Darwin

Easily the most influential book published in the nineteenth century, Darwin’s THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES is also that most unusual phenomenon, an altogether readable discussion of a scientific subject. On its appearance in 1859 it was immediately recognized by enthusiasts and detractors alike as a work of the greatest importance: its revolutionary theory of evolution by means of natural selection provoked a furious reaction that continues to this day. THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES is here published together with Darwin’s earlier THE VOYAGE OF THE ‘BEAGLE’. This 1839 account of the journeys to South America and the Pacific islands that first put Darwin on the track of his remarkable theories derives an added charm from his vivid description of his travels in exotic places and his eye for the piquant detail. READ an excerpt here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com

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Ten books that changed the world

10 authors choose books ‘not of an age, but for all time’ at The Guardian - http://tinyurl.com/prcydx3

The First Six Books of the Elements of Euclid - little work of art in itself by Oliver Byrne - https://archive.org/details/firstsixbooksofe00eucl (at the Internet Archive.)

Die Traumdeutung by Sigmund Freud - http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/40739

The Sayings of Confucius (translation Lionel Giles, 1910) - http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/46389

On the Origin of Species (2nd ed. 1860) by Charles Darwin - http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/22764

==s.a. Darwin in Down under