"A grain in the balance will determine which individual shall live and which shall die...". Darwin's theory of natural selection issued a profound challenge to orthodox thought and belief: no being or species has been specifically created; all arc locked into a pitiless struggle for existence, with extinction looming for those not fitted tor the task. Yet "The Origin of Species" (1859) is also a humane and inspirational vision of ecological interrelatedness, revealing the complex mutual interdependencies between animal and plant life, climate and physical environment, and - by implication -within the human world. Written for the general reader, in a style which combines the rigour ot science with the subtlety of literature. "The Origin of Species" remains one of the founding documents of the modern age.
