Development: What It Can Do and What It Cannot Do

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1883. First Edition.

Octavo (8 1/4 x 5 1/4 inches; 210 x 135 mm), 50 pages plus [6] pages of advertisements (softcover).

The author attempts to reconcile evolution with his Christian faith and argues that science and religion are not necessarily in conflict. Development, he says, is an ongoing process, while evolution refers to what happened in the past. "We speak of the seed developing into the plant, and the plant being evolved from the seed." (page 1).

McCosh, a Presbyterian minister, was a prolific writer who gradually came to accept evolution while still maintaining his strong belief in God. He wrote this pamphlet, part of Scribner's Philosophic Series, while serving as president of Princeton College (later University).

He was notable for being "the first prominent American Protestant religious leader to espouse evolutionism." (Bradley J. Gundlach, "McCosh and Hodge on Evolution: A Combined Legacy," in The Journal of Presbyterian History, Summer 1997, page 86). He did, however, express some caveats about evolution, saying that it couldn't account for everything in the natural world.

Scarce in the antiquarian book trade.

CONDITION: Some toning to the covers, some pages untrimmed, clean and unmarked contents. A sharp, Near Fine copy.