The Descent of Man

by Charles Darwin

Excerpt from The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex The nature of the following work will be best under stood by a brief account of how it came to be written. Dur ing many years I colleeted'notes on the origin or descent of man, without any intention of publishing on the subject, but rather with the determination not to publish, as I thought that I should thus only add to the prejudices against my views. It seemed to me sufficient to indicate, in the first edition of my Origin of Sp...