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Darwiniana: Notes on Evolutionary History

By emjohnson on December 14, 2009.

"Even the best of modern civilisations appears to me to exhibit a condition of mankind which neither embodies any worthy ideal nor even possesses the merit of stability. I do not hesitate to express the opinion that if there is no hope of a large improvement of the condition of the greater part of the human family; if it is true that the increase of knowledge, the winning of a greater domain over nature which is its consequence, and the wealth which follows upon that domain are to make no difference in the extent and the intensity of want with its concomitant physical and moral degradation amongst the masses of the people, I should hail the advent of some kindly comet which would sweep the whole affair away as a desirable consummation."

- Thomas Henry Huxley ("Darwin's Bulldog"), Aphorisms and Reflections, 1907, p. 161.

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By Ollitapio Pursiainen (not verified) on 15 Dec 2009 #permalink