# Endnotes explained — The Origin of Species

> Chapter companion for The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin.

## What happens

The endnotes provide historical references and commentary on early thinkers who anticipated or contributed to the idea of natural selection and species modification, including Aristotle, Lamarck, Goethe, Erasmus Darwin, and others.

## Themes in this chapter

### Natural Selection and the Struggle for Existence

Aristotle's passage is described as shadowing the principle of natural selection, though he did not fully comprehend it.

## Character check-ins

### Aristotle

Cited for his early shadowing of the principle of natural selection in Physicae Auscultationes.

### Lamarck

Mentioned in the context of the date of his first publication and his views on species.

### Goethe

Noted as an extreme partisan of similar views on the origin of species, writing in 1794-1795.

### Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire

Referenced for his history of opinion on Buffon's conclusions and for coming to similar conclusions on the origin of species.

### Buffon

Mentioned in the account of his conclusions on the subject of species modification.

### Bronn

Referenced for his work Untersuchungen uber die Entwickelungs-Gesetze.

## Key lines

> We here see the principle of natural selection shadowed forth, but how little Aristotle fully comprehended the principle, is shown by his remarks on the formation of the teeth.

Aristotle's writings hint at natural selection, but his misunderstanding is evident in his discussion of tooth formation.

_Darwin acknowledges Aristotle's early insight while noting its limitations._

> It is rather a singular instance of the manner in which similar views arise at about the same time, that Goethe in Germany, Dr. Darwin in England, and Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (as we shall immediately see) in France, came to the same conclusion on the origin of species, in the years 1794⁠–⁠5.

It is remarkable that Goethe, Erasmus Darwin, and Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire independently reached similar conclusions about species origins around 1794-1795.

_Darwin highlights the simultaneous emergence of evolutionary ideas across Europe._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_origin_of_species_se/chapters/endnotes
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