Read an excerpt from Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species

His seminal work, published in 1859, changed the course of science and society. An excerpt from the concluding chapter, on the “grandeur in this view of life”.

That many and grave objections may be advanced against the theory of descent with modification through natural selection, I do not deny. I have endeavoured to give to them their full force. Nothing at first can appear more difficult to believe than that the more complex organs and instincts should have been perfected, not by means superior to, though analogous with, human reason, but by the accumulation of innumerable slight variations, each good for the individual possessor. Nevertheless, this difficulty,