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Usually: curiosity (726) · detachment (395) · commentary or gloss (349) · argument (336) · narrative (328) · skepticism (298) · description (244) · wonder (123) · list or catalogue (107) · reflection (64)
“I sit with Shakespeare and he winces not. Across the color line I move arm in arm with Balzac and Dumas, where smiling men and welcoming women glide in gilded halls.” W. E. B. Du Bois (William Edward Burghardt Du Bois), The Souls of Black Folk · vivid
“So, wed with Truth, I dwell above the Veil. Is this the life you grudge us, O knightly America? Is this the life you long to change into the dull red hideousness of Georgia?” W. E. B. Du Bois (William Edward Burghardt Du Bois), The Souls of Black Folk · precept
“If you wish to ride with me you must come into the “Jim Crow Car.” W. E. B. Du Bois (William Edward Burghardt Du Bois), The Souls of Black Folk · observation
“This is the Land of the Unfenced, where crouch on either hand scores of ugly one-room cabins, cheerless and dirty.” W. E. B. Du Bois (William Edward Burghardt Du Bois), The Souls of Black Folk · vivid
“By 1860 there had risen in West Dougherty perhaps the richest slave kingdom the modern world ever knew.” W. E. B. Du Bois (William Edward Burghardt Du Bois), The Souls of Black Folk · observation
“The public highways, which had been constructed for the use of the legions, opened an easy passage for the Christian missionaries from Damascus to Corinth, and from Italy to the extremity of Spain or Britain;” Edward Gibbon, History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire · vivid
“There is one marine production which, from its importance, is worthy of a particular history.” Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle · observation
“There is something very solemn in these scenes. At no time does the consciousness in what a remote corner of the world you are then standing, come so strongly before the mind.” Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle · observation
“The meridian of the Antipodes has likewise been passed; and now every league, it made us happy to think, was one league nearer to England.” Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle · observation
“The general introduction of fire-arms has changed the whole system of warfare; and an exposed situation on the top of a hill is now worse than useless.” Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle · insight
“It is self-evident that a person following up the course of a stream, will always ascend at a greater or less inclination: Mr. Gill, therefore, was much astonished, when walking up the bed of this ancient river, to find himself suddenly going down hill.” Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle · insight
“In these little frequented countries there is also joined to it some vanity, that you perhaps are the first man who ever stood on this pinnacle or admired this view.” Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle · observation
From the Hagueward journey, Pepys watches Dutch port city life, notes the Prince of Orange and the Queen of Bohemia visits, and tours churches while adjusting fleet arrangements for the King’s expected arrival.
but that I hear that he keeps a great deal of prating and talking on shore, on board, at the King's Courts, what command he had with my Lord, &c. 14th. In the morning the Hague was clearly to be seen by us. My Lord went up, in his nightgown into the cuddy, to see how to dispose thereof for himself and us that belong to him, to give order for our removal to-day. Some nasty Dutchmen came on board to proffer their b…
During 17th–19th, Pepys attends near-incognito viewings of King Charles and the royal family, tours memorials in The Hague, visits places connected to the 365 children’s story, and struggles with foul weather for boarding.
not knowing cribbage, we fell into discourse of many things, and the ship rolled so much that I was not able to stand, and he bid me go to bed. May 16. Come in some with visits, among the rest one from Admiral Opdam, [The celebrated Dutch Admiral.] who spoke Latin well, but not French nor English, whom my Lord made me to entertain. Commissioner Pett [Naval Commissioner at Chatham.] was now come to take care to ge…
Pepys works at the Navy Office with Sir William Penn, dines at the Dolphin by Major Brown’s invitation, then is troubled by busy efforts to find lodgings for Lord Berkeley.
troubled, for fear of being forced to pay the money myself. Called at my father's going home, and bespoke mourning for myself, for the death of the Duke of Gloucester. 16th. My Lord of Oxford is also dead of the small-pox; in whom his family dyes, after 600 years having that honour in their family and name. [This must be a mistake for some other person. Robert, nineteenth earl of Oxford having died in 1632, and Au…
Pepys investigates the East Indies and the failure of the last voyage due to Portuguese deception, questions misinformation about Bombay, meets Sir Philip Warwick about Navy debts, and hears the King and Queen coming to Oxford while the Turks advance toward Hungary.
doubtfulness of myself, and the haste which he was in, some very great personages waiting for him without, while he was with me, that made him willing to be gone. 28th. To White Hall, where Sir J. Minnes and I did spend an hour in the Gallery, looking upon the pictures, in which he hath some judgement. And by and by the Commissioners for Tangier met: and there my Lord Teviott, together with Captain Cuttance, Capt…
Pepys reports escalating plague in London with empty streets and massive death tolls, updates his will, describes people carrying corpses by day, and notes deaths near Deptford, Woolwich, and Court.
over anew my will, which I had bound myself by oath to dispatch by tomorrow night; the town growing so unhealthy, that a man cannot depend upon living two days. 12th. The people die so, that now it seems they are fain to carry the dead to be buried by day-light, the nights not sufficing to do it in. And my Lord Mayor commands people to be within at nine at night all, as they say, that the sick may have liberty to …
Pepys sails to Gravesend on the Bezan Yacht, anchors overnight, and prepares to observe the fleet the next day.
17th. To Gravesend in the Bezan Yacht, and there come to anchor for all night. 18th. By break of day we come to within sight of the fleet, which was a very fine thing to behold, being above 100 ships, great and small; with the flag ships of each squadron, distinguished by their several flags on their main, fore, or mizen masts. Among others, the Soveraigne, Charles, and Prince; in the last of which my Lord Sandwic…
At Whitehall and the King’s chapel Pepys sees Lady Castlemaine, then meets officials in chambers including Coventry, antiquities losses from the fire, and scholars like John Wallis, ending with conversation about the Duke of Monmouth.
in the evening from the play; which I was glad of, it being cold and dark, and she having her necklace of pearl on, and none but Mercer with her. 19th. Talked of the King's family with Mr. Hingston, the organist. He says many of the musique are ready to starve, they being five years behind hand for their wages: nay, Evens, the famous man upon the Harp, having not his equal in the world, did the other day die for …
On 3rd–8th, Pepys notes Westminster’s rooms and Church lease stories, reports frequent fires since the Great Fire, discusses Tangier and Dutch fleet activity in the Frith, attends to public disturbances, and witnesses news of a duel-like killing by Fieldings’ brothers.
Mr. Pierce, and he tells me the Duke of Cambridge is very ill and full of spots about his body, that Dr. Frazier knows not what to think of it. MAY 1. 1667. To Westminster; in the way meeting many milk-maids with their garlands upon their pails, dancing with a fiddler before them; and saw pretty Nelly [Nell Gwynne.] standing at her lodgings' door in Drury-lane in her smock sleeves and bodice, looking upon one: s…
Pepys continues west and south through Wiltshire/Berkshire, passing Littlecote and Newbury, then reaches Reading (or Reding), where he notes the broad river running through the town.
with pillars, which makes it a good walk. All the five coaches that come this day from Bath, as well as we, were gone out of the town before six. 16th. Tuesday. After paying the reckoning, 14s. 4d. and servants 2s., poor 1s., set out; and passing through a good part of this country of Wiltshire, saw a good house [Littlecote.] of Alexander Popham's, [M.P. for Bath.] and another of my Lord Craven's, [Hampstead Mar…
Pepys travels from Chatham toward Maidstone to visit local estates and monuments, admires the Medway and Sir John Bankes’s seat by the river, and views a supposed Saxon monument.
cold day; and so on, and got to Chatham just at night, with very good discourse by the way, but mostly of matters of religion, wherein Huchinson his vein lies. 24th. To the Hill house, and there did give order for a coach to be made ready; and got Mr. Gibson, whom I carried with me, to go with me and Mr. Coney, the surgeon, towards Maydstone; which I had a mighty mind to see. A mighty cold and windy, but clear day…
Pepys tours the Medway region, visiting Maidstone and seeing a Saxon monument near Aylesford, before returning to Chatham and Captain Allen’s place.
of great antiquity, and I am mightily glad to see it: it is near to Alesford, where Sir John Bankes lives. So homeward to Chatham, Captain Allen's, and there light. 25th. Up, and by and by, about eight o'clock, came Rear-Admirall Kempthorne and seven captains more, by the Duke of York's order, as we expected, to hold the Court-martiall about the loss of "The Defyance." And so presently we by boat to "The Charles,"…
Corcyra continues its speech, presenting compliance as safe and honourable, arguing that Corinth’s hostility is immediate, and claiming Corcyra is strategically placed to block naval reinforcements.
if we forswear our old principle of complete political isolation, a principle which was not adopted with any sinister intention, but was rather the consequence of an error in judgment. “Now there are many reasons why in the event of your compliance you will congratulate yourselves on this request having been made to you. First, because your assistance will be rendered to a power which, herself inoffensive, is a vict…
Athenian leaders decide to sail to Sicily with a larger armament to conquer the island, explaining its immense size and varied peoples, and offering a long origin-history of Sicanians, Elymians, Sicels, Phoenicians, and Greek settlers at key cities.
Seventeenth Year of the War—The Sicilian Campaign—Affair of the Hermae—Departure of the Expedition The same winter the Athenians resolved to sail again to Sicily, with a greater armament than that under Laches and Eurymedon, and, if possible, to conquer the island; most of them being ignorant of its size and of the number of its inhabitants, Hellenic and barbarian, and of the fact that they were undertaking a war no…
After Ulysses washes and is dressed, Minerva improves his appearance; Nausicaa feeds him and then leads him back toward Scheria, explaining the city’s layout, sea-focused industries, and guarding against gossip.
a drop of oil upon it. I cannot wash as long as you all keep standing there. I am ashamed to strip56 before a number of good looking young women.” Then they stood on one side and went to tell the girl, while Ulysses washed himself in the stream and scrubbed the brine from his back and from his broad shoulders. When he had thoroughly washed himself, and had got the brine out of his hair, he anointed himself with oil,…
Odysseus builds a raft from timber supplied by Calypso, receives sails and supplies, sails using star navigation, and on the eighteenth day sighting the Phaeacians’ land like a shield in mist.
he, and the sun sank and darkness came on. Then they twain went into the chamber of the hollow rock, and had their delight of love, abiding each by other. So soon as early Dawn shone forth, the rosy-fingered, anon Odysseus put on him a mantle and doublet, and the nymph clad her in a great shining robe, light of woof and gracious, and about her waist she cast a fair golden girdle, and a veil withal upon her head. The…
Odysseus describes the Cyclopes as lawless herders who live without farming or council, living in caves, and then recounts his landing on their island, hunting goats, and scouting the cave of Polyphemus.
dwell in hollow caves on the crests of the high hills, and each one utters the law to his children and his wives, and they reck not one of another. “Now there is a waste isle stretching without the harbour of the land of the Cyclôpes, neither nigh at hand nor yet afar off, a woodland isle, wherein are wild goats unnumbered, for no path of men scares them, nor do hunters resort thither who suffer hardships in the woo…
Athene, disguised as a young herdsman, tells Odysseus his land is Ithaca and describes its fertility, prompting Odysseus to boast misleadingly and recount a fabricated voyage from Crete and Phoenicia.
had sandals bound, and a javelin in her hands. And Odysseus rejoiced as he saw her, and came over against her, and uttering his voice spake to her winged words: “Friend, since thou art the first that I have chanced on in this land, hail to thee, and with no ill-will mayest thou meet me! Nay, save this my substance and save me too, for to thee as to a god I make prayer, and to thy dear knees have I come. And herein t…
Telemachus and Theoclymenus reach Ithaca’s coast after sailing, Telemachus sends Theoclymenus toward his best neighbor Eurymachus, while Telemachus goes to the fields to inspect his lands.
“So spake she, and they all swore thereto as she bade them. Now when they had sworn and done that oath, again the woman spake among them and answered, saying: “‘Hold your peace now, and let none of your fellows speak to me and greet me, if they meet me in the street, or even at the well, lest one go and tell it to the old man at home, and he suspect somewhat and bind me in hard bonds and devise death for all of you.…
Darwin explains how his Beagle observations of South American distribution and geology led him to propose descent with modification, published because Wallace independently reached similar conclusions, and he argues that adaptation cannot be explained by external conditions alone.
expressing my deep obligations to Dr. Hooker, who for the last fifteen years has aided me in every possible way by his large stores of knowledge and his excellent judgment. In considering the Origin of Species, it is quite conceivable that a naturalist, reflecting on the mutual affinities of organic beings, on their embryological relations, their geographical distribution, geological succession, and other such facts…
He illustrates taxonomic disagreement by comparing botanists’ different species counts and shows how the same forms are treated as species or varieties depending on country, expertise, and distance between populations.
many cases, decide by a majority of naturalists, for few well-marked and well-known varieties can be named which have not been ranked as species by at least some competent judges. That varieties of this doubtful nature are far from uncommon cannot be disputed. Compare the several floras of Great Britain, of France or of the United States, drawn up by different botanists, and see what a surprising number of forms hav…
Using tabulations, Darwin claims dominant and widely diffused species most often produce well-marked varieties (incipient species), and he tests this across countries and larger versus smaller genera.
it necessarily here is with much brevity, is rather perplexing, and allusions cannot be avoided to the “struggle for existence,” “divergence of character,” and other questions, hereafter to be discussed. Alph. De Candolle and others have shown that plants which have very wide ranges generally present varieties; and this might have been expected, as they become exposed to diverse physical conditions, and as they come…
Darwin argues that species in large genera cluster like satellite varieties, with varieties and species sharing characters but differing mainly by degree of difference and often having restricted ranges.
are now manufacturing, many of the species already manufactured still to a certain extent resemble varieties, for they differ from each other by a less than usual amount of difference. Moreover, the species of the large genera are related to each other, in the same manner as the varieties of any one species are related to each other. No naturalist pretends that all the species of a genus are equally distinct from ea…
He explains that checks can include indirect effects where favored competitors or enemies expand, gives an example from his travels with latitude and mountains, and emphasizes that extreme regions rely on elemental struggle.
as with the elephant and rhinoceros, none are destroyed by beasts of prey: even the tiger in India most rarely dares to attack a young elephant protected by its dam. Climate plays an important part in determining the average numbers of a species, and periodical seasons of extreme cold or drought, I believe to be the most effective of all checks. I estimated that the winter of 1854-55 destroyed four-fifths of the bir…
Darwin reasons that species do not expand unchecked within their ranges because competition limits them, and that in new environments their conditions shift, requiring advantages to persist; he emphasizes the ongoing war of nature.
I suspect that the chief use of the nutriment in the seed is to favour the growth of the young seedling, whilst struggling with other plants growing vigorously all around. Look at a plant in the midst of its range, why does it not double or quadruple its numbers? We know that it can perfectly well withstand a little more heat or cold, dampness or dryness, for elsewhere it ranges into slightly hotter or colder, dampe…
He explains how intercrossing maintains uniformity within species but also allows new varieties through isolation and local selection, and he notes nurserymen prefer seed from large single-variety stands to reduce mixing.
On the above principle, nurserymen always prefer getting seed from a large body of plants of the same variety, as the chance of intercrossing with other varieties is thus lessened. Even in the case of slow-breeding animals, which unite for each birth, we must not overrate the effects of intercrosses in retarding natural selection; for I can bring a considerable catalogue of facts, showing that within the same area, …
Darwin argues that large areas tend to generate and spread new species faster than small isolated ones by combining severe competition, complex conditions, and repeated cycles of land fragmentation and reconnection over long periods.
like a continent, has been most favourable for the production of new organic forms, we ought to make the comparison within equal times; and this we are incapable of doing. Although I do not doubt that isolation is of considerable importance in the production of new species, on the whole I am inclined to believe that largeness of area is of more importance, more especially in the production of species, which will pro…
He concludes by sketching a long-term cycle: competition on continents, isolation in islands, inhibited immigration and local modification, then renewed competition after uplift, with natural selection acting extremely slowly but producing extensive evolutionary change.
forms may almost be called living fossils; they have endured to the present day, from having inhabited a confined area, and from having thus been exposed to less severe competition. To sum up the circumstances favourable and unfavourable to natural selection, as far as the extreme intricacy of the subject permits. I conclude, looking to the future, that for terrestrial productions a large continental area, which wil…
Darwin explains winglessness in Madeira beetles as natural selection, likely aided by disuse: beetles with worse flight survive by avoiding being blown into the sea, while strong fliers perish.
their progenitors; for as the tarsi are almost always lost in many dung-feeding beetles, they must be lost early in life, and therefore cannot be much used by these insects. In some cases we might easily put down to disuse modifications of structure which are wholly, or mainly, due to natural selection. Mr. Wollaston has discovered the remarkable fact that 200 beetles, out of the 550 species inhabiting Madeira, are …
He further supports his instincts-and-inheritance theory by noting similar behaviors in related birds across regions (thrushes, wrens, cuckoo brooding), and frames them as consequences of general evolutionary laws.
is applicable to instincts as well as to corporeal structure, and is plainly explicable on the foregoing views, but is otherwise inexplicable,—all tend to corroborate the theory of natural selection. This theory is, also, strengthened by some few other facts in regard to instincts; as by that common case of closely allied, but certainly distinct, species, when inhabiting distant parts of the world and living under c…
Responding to palaeontologists, Darwin explains that abrupt appearances of whole groups in formations likely reflect imperfect geology and large time gaps, allowing slow evolution elsewhere before invading the European archipelagoes.
had not the difficulty of our not discovering innumerable transitional links between the species which appeared at the commencement and close of each formation, pressed so hardly on my theory. *On the sudden appearance of whole groups of Allied Species*.—The abrupt manner in which whole groups of species suddenly appear in certain formations, has been urged by several palæontologists, for instance, by Agassiz, Picte…
Darwin connects natural selection to extinction by explaining how improved varieties spread and displace less-favoured forms, with competition strongest among closely similar species and only a few survivors preserved by isolation.
is the forerunner of death—to feel no surprise at sickness, but when the sick man dies, to wonder and to suspect that he died by some unknown deed of violence. The theory of natural selection is grounded on the belief that each new variety, and ultimately each new species, is produced and maintained by having some advantage over those with which it comes into competition; and the consequent extinction of less-favour…
Darwin presents the parallel succession of marine fossil forms across continents, notes it is not strictly simultaneous in years, and suggests widespread formations can be correlated even when climates differ greatly.
sea-shells; but as these anomalous monsters coexisted with the Mastodon and Horse, it might at least have been inferred that they had lived during one of the latter tertiary stages. When the marine forms of life are spoken of as having changed simultaneously throughout the world, it must not be supposed that this expression relates to the same thousandth or hundred-thousandth year, or even that it has a very strict …
He applies “descent with modification” to explain the long-lasting but non-immutable succession of similar types in the same areas, rejects “degeneration” of extinct megatherium, and details extinction and limited progeny.
was formerly more closely related in its mammals to Africa than it is at the present time. Analogous facts could be given in relation to the distribution of marine animals. On the theory of descent with modification, the great law of the long enduring, but not immutable, succession of the same types within the same areas, is at once explained; for the inhabitants of each quarter of the world will obviously tend to l…
Darwin introduces geographical distribution by arguing that climate alone cannot explain biotic similarity or difference, emphasizing barriers to migration, affinity within continents, dispersal methods, and especially glacial-period wide dispersal.
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. Present distribution cannot be accounted for by differences in physical conditions. Importance of barriers. Affinity of the productions of the same continent. Centres of creation. Means of dispersal, by changes of climate and of the level of the land, and by occasional means. Dispersal during the Glacial period co-extensive with the world. In considering the distribution of organic beings…
Darwin argues that most species were produced in a single region and then migrated, with recent climate and geographic change interrupting continuous ranges and explaining distant occurrences through migration rather than separate creation centers.
in the series, to the individuals of the same species, a directly opposite rule prevailed; and species were not local, but had been produced in two or more distinct areas! Hence it seems to me, as it has to many other naturalists, that the view of each species having been produced in one area alone, and having subsequently migrated from that area as far as its powers of migration and subsistence under past and prese…
He surveys dispersal mechanisms, emphasizing that climate change and land-level shifts can open or close migration routes, while rejecting the extreme claim that ocean islands were recently continuous with continents.
which I have selected as presenting the greatest amount of difficulty on the theory of “single centres of creation,” I must say a few words on the means of dispersal. *Means of Dispersal*.—Sir C. Lyell and other authors have ably treated this subject. I can give here only the briefest abstract of the more important facts. Change of climate must have had a powerful influence on migration: a region when its climate wa…
He explains identical alpine and arctic species on widely separated mountains via glacial history: cooling replaced temperate organisms, drove southward movement, and then stranded arctic species on isolated summits as warmth returned.
with inhabitants. On almost bare land, with few or no destructive insects or birds living there, nearly every seed, which chanced to arrive, would be sure to germinate and survive. *Dispersal during the Glacial period*.—The identity of many plants and animals, on mountain-summits, separated from each other by hundreds of miles of lowlands, where the Alpine species could not possibly exist, is one of the most strikin…
Darwin continues the glacial model, describing northward retreat of arctic forms and stepwise recolonization upslope, yielding present-day identities and stronger affinities between each mountain range and the latitude to its north.
later in North America than in Europe, so will the southern migration there have been a little earlier or later; but this will make no difference in the final result. As the warmth returned, the arctic forms would retreat northward, closely followed up in their retreat by the productions of the more temperate regions. And as the snow melted from the bases of the mountains, the arctic forms would seize on the cleared…
Darwin argues that during the Glacial period arctic species migrating together would resist major change, while isolated Alpine species—mixing with older alpine forms—would become varied, as seen in European mountain plants and animals.
further north, and subsequently have retreated to their present homes; but I have met with no satisfactory evidence with respect to this intercalated slightly warmer period, since the Glacial period. The arctic forms, during their long southern migration and re-migration northward, will have been exposed to nearly the same climate, and, as is especially to be noticed, they will have kept in a body together; conseque…
He explains uniformity among sub-arctic and northern temperate species before the Glacial epoch by earlier warm climates that created an almost continuous circumpolar land bridge between western Europe, Siberia, and eastern America.
favourable climate, I attribute the necessary amount of uniformity in the sub-arctic and northern temperate productions of the Old and New Worlds, at a period anterior to the Glacial epoch. Believing, from reasons before alluded to, that our continents have long remained in nearly the same relative position, though subjected to large, but partial oscillations of level, I am strongly inclined to extend the above view…
Darwin rejects creationism by arguing that related but non-identical plants and animals across disconnected seas and continents fit a modification theory, then surveys global evidence of Glacial action from Europe to the Americas, Himalaya, and Australia.
work), of some fish and other marine animals, in the Mediterranean and in the seas of Japan,—areas now separated by a continent and by nearly a hemisphere of equatorial ocean. These cases of relationship, without identity, of the inhabitants of seas now disjoined, and likewise of the past and present inhabitants of the temperate lands of North America and Europe, are inexplicable on the theory of creation. We cannot…
Assuming the world was simultaneously cooler in broad longitudinal belts, Darwin claims this helps explain distributions of related species, citing European genera appearing on distant southern mountains and islands like Tierra del Fuego, New Zealand, and Java.
whole world was at this period simultaneously cooler. But it would suffice for my purpose, if the temperature was at the same time lower along certain broad belts of longitude. On this view of the whole world, or at least of broad longitudinal belts, having been simultaneously colder from pole to pole, much light can be thrown on the present distribution of identical and allied species. In America, Dr. Hooker has sh…
He claims temperate plants and some animals migrated into intertropical regions during the Glacial period, then re-migrated upward or back as warmth returned, with north-to-south migrations favored by land extent and competitive advantage.
the tropical lowlands were clothed with a mingled tropical and temperate vegetation, like that now growing with strange luxuriance at the base of the Himalaya, as graphically described by Hooker. Thus, as I believe, a considerable number of plants, a few terrestrial animals, and some marine productions, migrated during the Glacial period from the northern and southern temperate zones into the intertropical regions, …
Darwin admits remaining difficulties in explaining specific dispersal routes and selective outcomes, then discusses antarctic-related distributions, including the role of icebergs, radiating migrations from a warmer southern centre, and cycles of climate change.
produced within the larger areas of the north, just in the same way as the productions of real islands have everywhere lately yielded to continental forms, naturalised by man’s agency. I am far from supposing that all difficulties are removed on the view here given in regard to the range and affinities of the allied species which live in the northern and southern temperate zones and on the mountains of the intertrop…
He introduces an extended discussion of oceanic islands, rejecting Forbes’s continental-extension view as insufficient, and frames the problem as explaining island life under independent creation versus descent with modification.
seeds of the Nelumbium undigested; or the seeds might be dropped by the bird whilst feeding its young, in the same way as fish are known sometimes to be dropped. In considering these several means of distribution, it should be remembered that when a pond or stream is first formed, for instance, on a rising islet, it will be unoccupied; and a single seed or egg will have a good chance of succeeding. Although there wi…
He claims oceanic islands often have many endemic species in particular groups (e.g., Madeira land-shells, Galapagos land birds) but not others (e.g., marine birds; Bermuda endemic land birds), attributing patterns to differing immigration opportunities.
the best adapted plants and animals have not been created on oceanic islands; for man has unintentionally stocked them from various sources far more fully and perfectly than has nature. Although in oceanic islands the number of kinds of inhabitants is scanty, the proportion of endemic species (*i.e.* those found nowhere else in the world) is often extremely large. If we compare, for instance, the number of the endem…
He further links the depth of sea between islands and continents to the similarity of mammal faunas—shallow channels correspond to shared mammals, deep channels to distinct forms—using Britain/Europe and West Indies examples.
natural selection in their new homes in relation to their new position, and we can understand the presence of endemic bats on islands, with the absence of all terrestrial mammals. Besides the absence of terrestrial mammals in relation to the remoteness of islands from continents, there is also a relation, to a certain extent independent of distance, between the depth of the sea separating an island from the neighbou…
Darwin states a general principle of island and habitat distribution: colonists arrive from the nearest readily source region, become modified, and related species appear across mountains, lakes, marshes, and caves.
south-west corners of Australia have nearly the same physical conditions, and are united by continuous land, yet they are inhabited by a vast number of distinct mammals, birds, and plants. The principle which determines the general character of the fauna and flora of oceanic islands, namely, that the inhabitants, when not identically the same, yet are plainly related to the inhabitants of that region whence colonist…
Darwin argues that classification is guided by inherited common descent rather than superficial similarity, noting difficulties with crustaceans, questionable use of geography, and how plant and insect groups shift ranks without new structural evidence.
of the plumule and radicle. In our discussion on embryology, we shall see why such characters are so valuable, on the view of classification tacitly including the idea of descent. Our classifications are often plainly influenced by chains of affinities. Nothing can be easier than to define a number of characters common to all birds; but in the case of crustaceans, such definition has hitherto been found impossible. …
Darwin claims the theory makes species and varieties continuous, predicts many varieties in regions with many species, and explains clustering and restricted ranges among allied species as inherited modification.
plainly marked varieties and sub-species, and species. Let it be observed how naturalists differ in the rank which they assign to the many representative forms in Europe and North America. If then we have under nature variability and a powerful agent always ready to act and select, why should we doubt that variations in any way useful to beings, under their excessively complex relations of life, would be preserved, …
He extends the argument to geographical distribution, using former migrations and glacial effects to explain why continents and island groups show related but distinct inhabitants.
same continent,—of marsupials in Australia, of edentata in America, and other such cases,—is intelligible, for within a confined country, the recent and the extinct will naturally be allied by descent. Looking to geographical distribution, if we admit that there has been during the long course of ages much migration from one part of the world to another, owing to former climatal and geographical changes and to the m…
Du Bois proclaims that, despite racial barriers, he reads and walks with canonical Western authors, calling on America to change, then shifts into “Of the Black Belt,” introducing Georgia as the geographic center of the Negro problem.
souls, the chance to soar in the dim blue air above the smoke is to their finer spirits boon and guerdon for what they lose on earth by being black. I sit with Shakespeare and he winces not. Across the color line I move arm in arm with Balzac and Dumas, where smiling men and welcoming women glide in gilded halls. From out the caves of evening that swing between the strong-limbed earth and the tracery of the stars, I…
Du Bois narrates historical and travel geography through Georgia’s slave trade growth and the Jim Crow train, then describes the approach to the Black Belt and the later stopping point at Albany in Dougherty County.
earnest were the prayers of Whitefield, that by the middle of the eighteenth century all restrictions were swept away, and the slave-trade went merrily on for fifty years and more. Down in Darien, where the Delegal riots took place some summers ago, there used to come a strong protest against slavery from the Scotch Highlanders; and the Moravians of Ebenezer did not like the system. But not till the Haytian Terror o…
At Albany in Dougherty County, Du Bois explains the county’s geography, Creek treaty and settlement history, describes Saturday market crowds of Black residents, and begins an overland journey into rural plantation country.
but we can see the great cotton country as we enter it,—the soil now dark and fertile, now thin and gray, with fruit-trees and dilapidated buildings,—all the way to Albany. At Albany, in the heart of the Black Belt, we stop. Two hundred miles south of Atlanta, two hundred miles west of the Atlantic, and one hundred miles north of the Great Gulf lies Dougherty County, with ten thousand Negroes and two thousand whites…
Du Bois crosses Dougherty into Baker County and follows roads along county lines marked by fences or lack of them, framing the “unfenced” region as the visible core of the Negro problem.
the schoolhouse is a lodgehouse two stories high and not quite finished. Societies meet there,—societies “to care for the sick and bury the dead”; and these societies grow and flourish. We had come to the boundaries of Dougherty, and were about to turn west along the county-line, when all these sights were pointed out to us by a kindly old man, black, white-haired, and seventy. Forty-five years he had lived here, an…
Returning from an unsettling stop at the Waters-Loring plantation, Du Bois lyrically describes Dougherty’s swamps and slave history, including Osceola’s uprising with Creeks and the expansion of the richest slave kingdom by 1860.
let houses and furniture and machinery rust and rot. So the Waters-Loring plantation was stilled by the spell of dishonesty, and stands like some gaunt rebuke to a scarred land. Somehow that plantation ended our day’s journey; for I could not shake off the influence of that silent scene. Back toward town we glided, past the straight and thread-like pines, past a dark tree-dotted pond where the air was heavy with a d…
Du Bois recounts how an English syndicate (Dixie Cotton and Corn Company) bought postwar land, leaving empty master houses, ruins, and a city suicide tragedy, then contrasts southwest Dougherty with the more systematically land-grabbed northwest.
of brave oaths, as he told hunting-tales of the swamp. We left him standing still in the middle of the road looking after us, and yet apparently not noticing us. The Whistle place, which includes his bit of land, was bought soon after the war by an English syndicate, the “Dixie Cotton and Corn Company.” A marvellous deal of style their factor put on, with his servants and coach-and-six; so much so that the concern s…
God commands Israel to sanctify firstborn humans and animals and establish Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread in Abib, then directs them to avoid Philistines’ route and follow the Red Sea wilderness.
And the LORD spake unto Moses saying: Sanctify unto me all the firstborn that open all manner matrices among the children of Israel, as well of men as of beasts: for they are mine. And Moses said unto the people: think on this day in which ye came out of Egypt and out of the house of bondage: for with a mighty hand the LORD brought you out from thence. See therefore that ye eat no leavened bread. This day come ye out…
Moses, Israel, and Miriam sing after Pharaoh’s defeat in the sea, then Israel travels into the wilderness of Sur, reaches Mara with bitter water turned sweet by Moses’ tree, and camps at Elim with wells and date trees.
Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song unto the LORD and said: Let us sing unto the LORD, for he is become glorious, the horse and him that rode upon him hath he overthrown in the sea. The LORD is my strength and my song, and is become my salvation. He is my God and I will glorify him, he is my father's God and I will lift him up on high. {an hie} The LORD is a man of war, Iehouah is his name: Pharao's …
After the plague, Moses and Eleazar count Israelite men aged twenty and up for war in the fields of Moab by the Jordan near Jericho, listing tribal genealogies beginning with Reuben and Simeon.
When Balam saw that it pleased the LORD that he should bless Israel, he went not as he did twice before to fetch soothsaying, but set his face toward the wilderness, and lift up his eyes and looked upon Israel as he lay with his tribes, and the spirit of God came upon him. And he took up his parable and said: Balam the son of Beor hath said, and the man whose eye is open hath said: he hath said which heareth the word…