John Pringle Nichol (1804-1859), a Scottish Romantic astronomer, educator, and social reformer, used visual representations to develop and communicate key elements of his theory of evolution as a universal principle. Examining four of the diverse representations that appeared in Nichol's popular science books between 1846 and 1850 reveals the rich possibilities of evolutionary imagery prior to the emergence of more dominant forms of representation in the wake of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859). The abstract and schematic nature of many of Nichol's visual representations-which included line diagrams and imaginative, mythic imagery (the latter developed in collaboration with the Scottish Romantic artist David Scott)-made them apt vessels for his Romantic evolutionary concepts, because a single image could simultaneously represent features of evolution across multiple domains, reflecting the Romantic concept of the unity of nature and the myriad analogies between its constituent parts. All of the images embodied narrative in one form or another and required use of the imagination in the act of interpretation. Many of the images facilitated the viewer's ability to conceptualize unobservable or only partially observable features of evolutionary change. Even as these visual representations acted as tools of perspective, insight, and clarity, they also helped to generate new ambiguities, such as a fundamental tension between teleology and contingency.

中文翻译：

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大胆的心灵：可视化约翰·普林格尔·尼科尔浪漫宇宙中的进化

John Pringle Nichol (1804-1859) 是一位苏格兰浪漫主义天文学家、教育家和社会改革家，他使用视觉表现来发展和传达他的进化论的关键要素，并将其作为普遍原则。检查 1846 年至 1850 年间出现在尼科尔科普书籍中的四种不同表现形式，揭示了在查尔斯·达尔文的《物种起源》（1859 年）之后出现更多主导形式的表现形式之前，进化意象的丰富可能性。Nichol 的许多视觉表现的抽象和示意图性质——包括线图和富有想象力的神话意象（后者与苏格兰浪漫主义艺术家大卫·斯科特合作开发）——使它们成为他浪漫主义进化概念的合适容器，因为单个图像可以同时代表跨多个领域的进化特征，反映了自然统一的浪漫概念及其组成部分之间的无数类比。所有的图像都以一种或另一种形式体现了叙事，需要在解释过程中运用想象力。许多图像促进了观看者概念化进化变化的不可观察或仅部分可观察的特征的能力。即使这些视觉表现作为透视、洞察力和清晰度的工具，它们也有助于产生新的歧义，例如目的论和偶然性之间的根本张力。所有的图像都以一种或另一种形式体现了叙事，需要在解释过程中运用想象力。许多图像促进了观看者概念化进化变化的不可观察或仅部分可观察的特征的能力。即使这些视觉表现作为透视、洞察力和清晰度的工具，它们也有助于产生新的歧义，例如目的论和偶然性之间的根本张力。所有的图像都以一种或另一种形式体现了叙事，需要在解释过程中运用想象力。许多图像促进了观看者概念化进化变化的不可观察或仅部分可观察的特征的能力。即使这些视觉表现作为透视、洞察力和清晰度的工具，它们也有助于产生新的歧义，例如目的论和偶然性之间的根本张力。