The language and craft of William Barnes, English poet and philologist (1801-1886) Book

If you're into evolutionary biology it's a good read. But beware of the beginning and end. First he talks about algae-which is, I'm afraid to say, horribly boring (and this is coming from me, a guy who has an algae herbarium)-and in the end he goes on and on about a "bold new science". It's the meat in between that makes it worth-the point he makes is evolution has fixed parameters within which to work. It can't make a form that isn't already plausible at the biochemistry level. So the hand of a bat/human/whale/cat are all similar not only due to a shared ancestor, but also because these are the only possible forms given the biochemical nature of the organisms.