9

Darwin, Design, and the

Unification of Nature

John Hedley Brooke

Despite obvious differences between the practices of science and the
practicing of a religion, there is at least one important resemblance.
While they are both rooted in human experience and culture, they
also seek to transcend the particularities of time and place to yield
truths that claim a more universal significance.
Science, as with religion, has been rooted in local cultures; and
the shaping of Darwin’s theory of evolution would be a good exam-
ple. Darwin claimed that it was after he had read a work of political
economy, theEssay on Populationof the Reverend Thomas Malthus,
that he had at last developed a theory to work by.^1 The Malthusian
image of disproportion between an expanding population and lim-
ited resources, featured in debates about charity to the poor, helped
to crystallize the idea of natural selection in Darwin’s mind. When
recalling the impact of Malthus’sEssay,Darwin also said that he had
been “well prepared to appreciate the struggle for existence.”^2 On
the voyage of theBeagle, he had had the opportunity to see nature in
the raw, to see the giant condors in South America preying on
young cattle. From the study of fossil forms he had come to appreci-
ate the extent of extinction. But such experiences were only possible
for him because Britain was an expanding imperial and naval power.
The main purpose of the voyage was to improve the accuracy of ear-
lier surveys of the coastline of South America.
Prior to the voyage, Darwin had been studying at Cambridge to
become a priest in the Anglican Church. Here was another influ-
ence that was culturally specific.^3 Among his mentors were clergy-
man naturalists who interpreted the natural world as a work of crea-