- All's Well That Ends Well
- Antony and Cleopatra
- As You Like It
- The Comedy of Errors
- Coriolanus
- Cymbeline
- Hamlet
- Henry IV, Part 1
- Henry IV, Part 2
- Henry V
- Henry VI, Part 1
- Henry VI, Part 2
- Henry VI, Part 3
- Henry VIII
- Julius Caesar
- King John
- King Lear
- Love's Labor's Lost
- A Lover's Complaint
- Macbeth
- Measure for Measure
- The Merchant of Venice
- The Merry Wives of Windsor
- A Midsummer Night's Dream
- Much Ado About Nothing
- Othello
- Pericles
- The Rape of Lucrece
- Richard II
- Richard III
- Romeo and Juliet
- Shakespeare's Sonnets
- The Taming of the Shrew
- The Tempest
- Timon of Athens
- Titus Andronicus
- Troilus and Cressida
- Twelfth Night
- The Two Gentlemen of Verona
- Venus and Adonis
- The Winter's Tale
This quote is one of the first places in the book where Darwin discusses the immutability of species, an idea that many of his opponents believed in. Darwin rejects the theory outright, using comparatively stronger language than he does when addressing other criticisms. This dismissal makes sense: the immutability of species is a concept that would invalidate the entire theory of natural selection. “Immutable” means unchanging, and the entire premise of Darwin’s book is that species can and have changed over time.
There is, however, one point where Darwin agrees with the “immutability of species” proponents: the existing fossil record…