This is the first American edition (and third overall) of Robert Chambers’s Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, one of the earliest texts to outline an evolutionary history of life and the world. Chambers believed that evolution was perfectly compatible with traditional religion, viewing the natural laws that guided the development of life as a testimony to the wisdom of the Divine Author. When Vestiges appeared in 1844, it quickly became a best seller, but many Christians decried its religious implications. Meanwhile, many scientists, including Charles Darwin, viewed the author’s scientific claims as undeveloped and amateurish. Chambers’s identity remained a secret for over 40 years.