The Reluctant Revolutionary
STATION 4YA’s BBC programme, _ dealing with Darwin’s Origin of Species and how it came to be written, was extremely fascinating. Naturally, that remarkable book The Voyage of the Beagle formed an early source of quotation, and not having read it, I was impelled to fill such a gap in mv educa-
tidn by getting, hold of a copy as soon as possible. This account of a five-year voyage in a 235-ton brig must be one of the curiosities both of science and of literature. Darwin’s subsequent notebdoks gradually
reveal the development of the great theory of the origin of species which was to rock the foundations of the civilised world. Preceded by a few cautious entries in the notebooks, over several years, comes finally the definite statement that in his opinion (‘it is like confessing to a murder," he wrote) species are not immutable, The programme then gave an _all-too-brief glimpse into the Darwin home-life (a comfortable countryside existence with the accompaniment of dogs, children, experiments, conversation, backgammon, and reading ‘aloud), and reached the moment of the joint publication of the theory by Darwin and Wallace. It ended appropriately at the moment of the fearful and wonderful scrimmage among the opposing forces of science and reaction, a battle in which the result might be set down as "Huxley defeated Wilber~ force, 100 to nil."
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 369, 19 July 1946, Page 14
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227The Reluctant Revolutionary New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 369, 19 July 1946, Page 14
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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