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History of the RSM - November 2009


This November sees the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the first publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. A small exhibition to commemorate this event is planned for the library and will be opened on Monday 23 November in time for the exact anniversary the following day. The RSM Library’s copy of the first edition of Origin of Species will form the centrepiece of the display alongside works by some of Darwin’s precursors and defenders.

Dr Cherrie Coghlan, a Fellow of the Society, has kindly submitted Revolution, a poem concerning the social and intellectual impact of Darwin’s theory of evolution.

REVOLUTION

Taking leave of the accepted wisdom
down a different path,
he took a step away from Heaven’s comfort.
Finding that nature favoured happy accidents,
his small steps landed him and us
with social change as well.
His voyage forced the naturalist to note
with fascination cruelty and pattern,
and took him from his genteel Wedgewood world
down to the darkest heart of human savagery,
which was not clothed in fur of ape-like ancestor,
but wore the pious garments of his day.
Emboldened then by his survival,
men were free to dwell
in safety, who had feared the fires of Hell.

Cherrie A Coghlan


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