
On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection
Charles Darwin · 1859
Darwin’s 1859 argument is mechanistic, not historical: natural selection edits variation, it does not create life. The brief isolates the wedge metaphor, homology, and Galápagos biogeography as the enduring core—and flags Chapters VII–IX as dated digressions. Read Chapters I–IV and XIV, then decide whether to go deeper.