• However, this "quote" goes back to A.E. Wilder-Smith, Man's Origin, Man's Destiny: A Critical Survey of the Principles of Evolution and Christianity (H. Shaw Publishers, 1968) page 190, where it is clear that Wilder-Smith is describing Sedgwick's position, not quoting him.
• In fact, Sedgwick did write that "If the book be true, the labours of sober induction are in vain; religion is a lie; human law is a mass of folly, and a base injustice; morality is moonshine; our labours for the black people of Africa were works of madmen; and man and woman are only better beasts!" (letter to Charles Lyell, 9 April 1845, published in The Life and Letters of the Rev. Adam Sedgwick (1890) volume 2, page 84).
• But the book Sedgwick was commenting upon in this passage was not Darwin's On the Origin of Species (published in 1859), but Robert Chambers's Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (published in 1844).
If this book were to find general public acceptance, it would bring with it a brutalization of the human race such as it had never seen before.
What It Means
This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "If this book were to find general public acceptance, it would bring with it a brutalization of the human race such as it had never seen before." in the context of "One often finds this as a quote about Darwin's book On the Origin of Species from Darwin's friend and teacher Adam Sedgwick.
• However, this "quote" goes back to A.E. Wilder-Smith, Man's Origin, Man's Destiny: A Critical Survey of the Principles of Evolution and Christianity (H. Shaw Publishers, 1968) page 190, where it is clear that Wilder-Smith is describing Sedgwick's position, not quoting him.
• In fact, Sedgwick did write that "If the book be true, the labours of sober induction are in vain; religion is a lie; human law is a mass of folly, and a base injustice; morality is moonshine; our labours for the black people of Africa were works of madmen; and man and woman are only better beasts!" (letter to Charles Lyell, 9 April 1845, published in The Life and Letters of the Rev. Adam Sedgwick (1890) volume 2, page 84).
• But the book Sedgwick was commenting upon in this passage was not Darwin's On the Origin of Species (published in 1859), but Robert Chambers's Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (published in 1844)." to mean that wisdom is timeless.
About Charles Darwin