Introduction

The first edition of On the Origin of Species, 1,250 copies, sold out on the day of publication. Darwin begins with the familiar domestic animals and plants: by selection breeders can produce, within a few generations, pigeons and dogs of very different forms. In nature a similar process is at work: far more living things are born than can survive, individuals differ slightly from one another, and those with favourable variations are more likely to survive and leave offspring: this is 'natural selection'. Over the long ages of geological time small differences accumulate and new species are formed. All living things descend from common ancestors and make up one great 'tree of life'. Darwin hints at human origins in a single sentence. The book ends: 'There is grandeur in this view of life.' It changed for ever humanity's understanding of its place in nature.