PHILOSOPHY OF DR. ERASMUS DARWIN. IQ5 



CHAPTEK XIII. 



PHILOSOPHY OF DR. ERASMUS DARWIN. 



CONSIDERING the wide reputation enjoyed by Dr. Dar- 

 win at the beginning of this century, it is surprising 

 how completely he has been lost sight of. The ' Botanic 

 Garden' was translated into Portuguese in 1803; 

 the ' Loves of the Plants ' into French and Italian in 

 1800 and 1805; while, as I have already said, the 

 'Zoonomia' had appeared some years earlier in Ger- 

 many. Paley's * Natural Theology ' is written through- 

 out at the ' Zoonomia,' though he is careful, more suo, 

 never to mention this work by name. Paley's success 

 was probably one of the chief causes of the neglect 

 into which the Buffonian and Darwinian systems fell 

 in this country. Dr. Darwin is as reticent about teleo- 

 logy as Buffon, and presumably for the same reason, 

 but the evidence in favour of design was too obvious ; 

 Paley, therefore, with his usual keen-sightedness seized 

 upon this weak point, and had the battle all his own 

 way, for Dr. Darwin died the same year as that in 

 which the ' Natural Theology ' appeared. The unfor- 

 tunate failure to see that evolution involves design and 

 purpose as necessarily and far more intelligibly than 

 the theological view of creation, has retarded our 



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