The Universal Gestation of Nature: Chambers' Vestiges and Explanations

Abstract

Sometimes a book proves hard to interpret correctly not because of what is in the book, but because of what is in another book. Darwin’s Origin of Species has made it very difficult indeed to give a correct reading of Robert Chambers’ Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (1844) and Explanations: A Sequel to the Vestiges (1845). In fact, I know of no such reading, and a main aim of this paper is to attempt one, at least for the sections where Chambers deals with organic diversity. 1 But let me dwell a moment on the difficulty involved. For there are some important historiographical issues at stake.

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