# Evolutionist at Large

An audiobook by Grant Allen, read by LibriVox volunteers (4 h 12 min, English).

These Essays originally appeared in the columns of the 'St. James's Gazette,' and I have to thank the courtesy of the Editor for kind permission to republish them. My object in writing them was to make the general principles and methods of evolutionists a little more familiar to unscientific readers. Biologists usually deal with those underlying points of structure which are most really important, and on which all technical discussion must necessarily be based. But ordinary people care little for such minute anatomical and physiological details. They cannot be expected to interest themselves in the flexor pollicis longus, or the hippocampus major about whose very existence they are ignorant, and whose names suggest to them nothing but unpleasant ideas. What they want to find out is how the outward and visible forms of plants and animals were produced. They would much rather learn why birds have feathers than why they have a keeled sternum; and they think the origin of bright flowers far more attractive than the origin of monocotyledonous seeds or exogenous stems. It is with these surface questions of obvious outward appearance that I have attempted to deal in this little series…

[Listen](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/books/librivox/18592)
[Read the book](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/books/gutenberg/44820/read)

## Chapters

0. Poem and Preface (5:42): https://archive.org/download/evolutionist_at_large_2212_librivox/evolutionist_00_allen_64kb.mp3
1. A Ballade of Evolution (1:42): https://archive.org/download/evolutionist_at_large_2212_librivox/evolutionist_01_allen_64kb.mp3
2. Microscopic Brains (12:15): https://archive.org/download/evolutionist_at_large_2212_librivox/evolutionist_02_allen_64kb.mp3
3. A Wayside Berry (9:38): https://archive.org/download/evolutionist_at_large_2212_librivox/evolutionist_03_allen_64kb.mp3
4. In Summer Fields (15:01): https://archive.org/download/evolutionist_at_large_2212_librivox/evolutionist_04_allen_64kb.mp3
5. A Sprig of Water Crowfoot (13:19): https://archive.org/download/evolutionist_at_large_2212_librivox/evolutionist_05_allen_64kb.mp3
6. Slugs and Snails (12:44): https://archive.org/download/evolutionist_at_large_2212_librivox/evolutionist_06_allen_64kb.mp3
7. A Study of Bones (9:28): https://archive.org/download/evolutionist_at_large_2212_librivox/evolutionist_07_allen_64kb.mp3
8. Blue Mud (9:47): https://archive.org/download/evolutionist_at_large_2212_librivox/evolutionist_08_allen_64kb.mp3
9. Cuckoo-Pint (9:19): https://archive.org/download/evolutionist_at_large_2212_librivox/evolutionist_09_allen_64kb.mp3
10. Berries and Berries (8:47): https://archive.org/download/evolutionist_at_large_2212_librivox/evolutionist_10_allen_64kb.mp3
11. Distant Relations (8:31): https://archive.org/download/evolutionist_at_large_2212_librivox/evolutionist_11_allen_64kb.mp3
12. Among the Heather (12:58): https://archive.org/download/evolutionist_at_large_2212_librivox/evolutionist_12_allen_64kb.mp3
13. Speckled Trout (11:02): https://archive.org/download/evolutionist_at_large_2212_librivox/evolutionist_13_allen_64kb.mp3
14. Dodder and Broomrape (10:04): https://archive.org/download/evolutionist_at_large_2212_librivox/evolutionist_14_allen_64kb.mp3
15. Dog's Mercury and Plantain (9:09): https://archive.org/download/evolutionist_at_large_2212_librivox/evolutionist_15_allen_64kb.mp3
16. Butterfly Psychology (14:06): https://archive.org/download/evolutionist_at_large_2212_librivox/evolutionist_16_allen_64kb.mp3
17. Butterfly Æsthetics (10:41): https://archive.org/download/evolutionist_at_large_2212_librivox/evolutionist_17_allen_64kb.mp3
18. The Origin of Walnuts (16:46): https://archive.org/download/evolutionist_at_large_2212_librivox/evolutionist_18_allen_64kb.mp3
19. A Pretty Land-Shell (9:22): https://archive.org/download/evolutionist_at_large_2212_librivox/evolutionist_19_allen_64kb.mp3
20. Dogs and Masters (9:15): https://archive.org/download/evolutionist_at_large_2212_librivox/evolutionist_20_allen_64kb.mp3
21. Blackcock (9:01): https://archive.org/download/evolutionist_at_large_2212_librivox/evolutionist_21_allen_64kb.mp3
22. Bindweed (12:57): https://archive.org/download/evolutionist_at_large_2212_librivox/evolutionist_22_allen_64kb.mp3
23. On Cornish Cliffs (9:59): https://archive.org/download/evolutionist_at_large_2212_librivox/evolutionist_23_allen_64kb.mp3