What is Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation?
{{italictitle}} {{Infobox book | name = Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation | title_orig = | translator = | image = Vestiges1884.jpg | caption = Title page of the 12th edition of ''Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation'' (1884) | author = [[Robert Chambers (journalist)|Robert Chambers]] | illustrator = | cover_artist = | country = United Kingdom | language = English | series = | subject = [[Evolutionary biology]] | genre = | publisher = [[John Churchill (publisher)|John Churchill]] | release_date = October 1844 | english_release_date = | media_type = | pages = | isbn = | preceded_by = | followed_by = }} '''''Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation''''' is an 1844 work by [[Robert Chambers (publisher born 1802)|Robert Chambers]]. It was published [[Anonymous work|anonymous]]ly in England. The book openly discussed the [[evolution|transmutation of species]] in an attractive way. ''Vestiges'' became an international bestseller. Its theme contradicted the [[natural theology]] fashionable at the time. Its ideas were reviled by [[Clergyman|clergymen]]. The ideas in the book were popular with a wider public. [[Albert, Prince Consort|Prince Albert]] read it aloud to [[Queen Victoria]] in 1845. ''Vestiges'' caused a shift in popular opinion which – [[Charles Darwin]] believed – prepared the public mind for the scientific theories of [[evolution]] by [[natural selection]] as in his ''[[On the Origin of Species]]'' in 1859.<ref>Secord, James A. 2000. ''Victorian sensation: the extraordinary publication, reception, and secret authorship of Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, ISBN 978-0-226-74410-0</ref> For [[decade]]s there was speculation about the authorship of ''Vestiges''. The 12th edition of 1884, revealed that the author was [[Robert Chambers (journalist)|Robert Chambers]], a Scottish journalist. He had written the book in [[St Andrews]] between 1841 and 1