BUFFON 25 



quite a small number of families " from which it is not 

 impossible that all the rest are derived." 1 Within each of 

 the families the species branch off from a parent or type 

 species. This we may note is a great advance on the 

 linear arrangement implied in the idea of an Echelle dcs 

 ctres? 



It is a mistake to suppose that Buffbn was par excellence 

 a maker of hypotheses. On the contrary he saw things 

 very sanely and with a very open mind. He expressly 

 mentions the great difficulties which one encounters 

 in supposing that one species may arise from another by 

 "degeneration." How does it happen that two individuals 

 "degenerate" just in the right direction and to the right 

 stage so as to be capable of breeding together ? How is it 

 that one does not find intermediate links between species ? 

 One is reminded of the objections, not altogether without 

 validity, which were made to the Darwinian theory in its 

 early days. I cannot agree with those who think that 

 Buffon was an out-and-out evolutionist, who concealed his 

 opinions for fear of the Church. No doubt he did trim his 

 sails the palpably insincere " Mais non, il est certain, par 

 la revelation, que tous les animaux out egalement participe 

 a la grace de la creation," 3 following hard upon the too bold 

 hypothesis of the origin of all species from a single one, is 

 proof of it. But he was too sane and matter-of-fact a 

 thinker to go much beyond his facts, and his evolution 

 doctrine remained always .tentative. One thing, however, 

 he was sure of, that evolution would give a rational founda- 

 tion to the classification which, almost in spite of himself, he 

 recognised in Nature. If, and only if, the species of one 

 family originated from a single type species, could families 

 be founded rationally, avec raison. 



Buffon was, curiously enough, rather unwilling to recog- 

 nise any systematic unit higher than the species. Strictly 

 speaking there are only individuals in Nature ; but there 



1 Tome xiv., p. 358. 



2 See also "Oiseaux," Tome i., pp. 394, 395. Pallas in 1766 adopted 

 for the whole animal kingdom this branching arrangement. 



3 " But this cannot be, for it is certain by revelation that all animals 

 have equally participated in the grace of creation." 



