Darwin and Romaticism

In acknowledgment of the scientific accomplishments of Charles Robert Darwin, his noble face is printed on the English ten pound note, crumpled in wallets country-wide. And yet, his great achievements in the field of science have always deemed him the foil of philosophy and traditional aesthetics. Contrary to this popular assumption, On the Origin of Species is not only a colorfully and intimately written book, with poetic flashes of feeling and an intelligent style, it …

…a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved" (Darwin ch 14). Despite the initial incongruence between the "survival of the fittest" and the Romantic ideal, there is and always will remain a "common link" between the writings of Charles Darwin and that of Romanticism. WORKS CITED Darwin, Charles. The Origin of the Species by Means of Natural Selection. New York: Random House, 1979. Wordsworth, William. The Prelude. New York: Norton, 1982.