It is completely understandable that we are often maddened by what might be called normal humanity—the way in which emotions so regularly triumph over careful reasoning, the power of group loyalty even when the group doesn’t seem to deserve much devotion, and the vast mechanisms of status-seeking that drive so much excess consumption. We witness widespread selfishness and indifference to the greater needs of distant others. In moments of frustration, we may find ourselves, whether in private contemplation or the occasional late-night outburst, railing against the fools and idiots who, so unfortunately, seem to occupy so many of the prominent places of power, wealth, and influence in our world. In such moods, the nineteenth-century naturalist Charles Darwin has much to say to us.

Born in England in 1809 into a well-to-do and intellectually distinguished family, Darwin was deeply influenced by his visit to the Galápagos Islands in his twenties,........

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