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Early Speculation and Theory • ORGANIC LIFE beneath the shoreless wavesWas born and nurs'd in Ocean's pearly caves;First forms minute, unseen by spheric glass,Move on the mud, or pierce the watery mass;These, as successive generations bloom,New powers acquire, and larger limbs assume;Whence countless groups of vegetation spring,And breathing realms of fin, and feet, and wing. (Erasmus ,1802) Darwin
Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802) • Renowned English medical doctor, poet, inventor, and naturalist. • Also, Charles Darwin’s grandfather • In Zoonomia (1794-1796) and Temple of Nature (1802), offered speculative theory of evolution • Did not clearly articulate the theory of natural selection, though presented basic ideas such as: • unity of organic life • importance of heredity, and • struggle of existence for the evolutionary process