PRE-BUFFONIAN AND GERMAN EVOLUTION. 73 



evolution, " from the German to the French nature- 

 philosophers who have likewise held the theory of 

 descent, since the beginning of this century. At their 

 head stands Jean Lamarck, who occupies the first place 

 next to Darwin and Goethe in the history of the doctrine 

 of Filiation." * This is rather a surprising assertion, 

 but I will leave the reader of the present volume to 

 assign the value which should be attached to it. 



Professor Haeckel devotes ten lines to Dr. Erasmus 

 Darwin, who he declares "expresses views very similar 

 to those of Goethe and Lamarck, without, however, then 

 knowing anything about these two men ; " which is 

 all the more strange inasmuch as Dr. Darwin preceded 

 them, and was a good deal better known to them, 

 probably, than they to him ; but it is plain Professor 

 Haeckel has no acquaintance with the * Zoonomia ' of 

 Dr. Erasmus Darwin. From all, then, that I am able to 

 collect, I conclude that I shall best convey to the reader 

 an idea of the different phases which the theory of 

 descent with modification has gone through, by con- 

 fining his attention almost entirely to Buffon, Dr. 

 Erasmus Darwin, Lamarck, and Mr. Charles Darwin. 



* ' History of Creation,' bk. i. ch. iii. (H. S. King, 1876). 



