Abstract
III. THE influence which our great naturalist has exerted upon zoology is unquestionably greater than that which has been exerted by any other individual; and as it depends on his generalisations much more than upon his particular researches, we may best do justice to it by taking a broad view of the effects of Darwinism on zoology, rather than by detailing those numberless facts which have been added to the science by the ever vigilant observations of Darwin. Nevertheless, we may begin our survey by enumerating the more important results of his purely zoological work, not so much because these have been rarely equalled by the work of any other zoologist, as because we may thus give due prominence to the remarkable association of qualities which was presented by Mr. Darwin's mind. This association of qualities was such that he was able fully to appreciate and successfully to cultivate every department and ramification of biological research—whether morphological, physiological, systematic, descriptive, or statistical—and at the same time to rise above the minutiæ of these various branches, to take those commanding views of the whole range of nature and of natural knowledge which have produced so enormous a change upon our means of inquiry and our modes of thought. No labourer in the field of science has ever plodded more patiently through masses of small detail; no master-mind on the highest elevation of philosophy has ever grasped more world-transforming truth.
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Charles Darwin 1 . Nature 26, 97–100 (1882). https://doi.org/10.1038/026097a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/026097a0