On The Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. By Charles Darwin. Fifth Thousand. London: John Murray, 1860, 8vo.
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A lovely copy of the second edition of Darwin's Origin of Species bound in the original publisher's binding with the ticket to the rear pastedown as called for. This is Freeman binding variant A with the upright of the L in London over the right side upright of H in JOHN at the foot of the spine imprint and with a 1 mm gap between the lower triangle and gilt rule below it and with the imprint letters to the spine 3 mm high.
The 1250 copies of the first edition of 1859 were sold out almost immediately and this revised second edition (identified by “fifth thousand” on the title page) was published 3 months later. In a very important addition to his text, Darwin here tries to reconcile the theory of evolution with the traditional conception of God’s creation of the world.
He adds the sentence "I see no good reason why the views given in this volume should shock the religious views of anyone" and references a letter from author and clergyman Charles Kingsley, of The Water Babies fame, in which Kingsley praises Darwin and says that his theory poses no threat to his personal religious beliefs. Additionally, in the final sentence of the book, Darwin incorporates a reference to "the Creator."
This copy includes a very interesting clipping from Punch Magazine dated 1870 to the front pastedown which satirises and mocks Darwin's ideas in a reductio ad absurdum fashion, reading "Less was known of this planet than of any other until it was examined by the philosopher Darwin, a few years ago. He reports that the inhabitants are nothing at all, and never were anything, and will be the same for about two billion of years, when they will all turn into ducks with long green tails, having eyes at the end thereof. They will then commence a struggle for life, in the course of which their tails will come off, and they will have to wooden legs between three of them, and all will talk oolitic sessile pachydermatous Semitic. He does not speak with perfect certainty as to the next change, but believes that they will probably become lobsters, unless their electricity be too great, in which case the planet will be inhabited by pterodactyls and megalospondees, until it bursts."
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Size: 134 x 206 mm (approx.)
Condition:
[t.p., (v)-(x), pp.1-116, foldout plate, pp.117-502, 32pp, (1)]
Original publisher's full green cloth binding with the original binder's ticket to the foot of the rear pastedown as called for, of Edmonds & Remnants, London. Both boards attached, green cloth generally very bright and clean, externally very good indeed, some minor rubbing along the joints and to the extremities of the backstrip. Page block slightly loose in the binding. Hinges cracked with netting exposed at the front. Remnants of a now removed manuscript note to front pastedown as well as a clipping from Punch Magazine dated 1870. Ownership inscription to head of title page, undated, but of a doctor, approximately contemporary to the time of printing (? Brower, M.D., 16 ? Place, ?). Folding lithographed plate present, as well as the 32pp. of publisher's advertisements at rear. Lacks the first leaf, else collates complete, though with erratic signatures as printed, particularly through the first few quires. Split in the gutter of F1 & I1. Exceptionally clean throughout the text block, no foxing etc.
[Freeman 376a].
