122 PERIOD IV. 



Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, which 

 might be called a premature explosion, dates from 

 1844. Hofmeister (see supra, p. 109) put forth a detailed 

 comparison of the flowering- plants with the higher 

 cryptogams, which strongly suggested a theory of 

 descent with modification, and is unintelligible on any 

 other basis. He indicated no such interpretation him- 

 self, being content to establish the new homologies ; 

 but the Origin of Species, as soon as it appeared, 

 commanded his entire sympathy. 



Among those who rejected fixity of species and 

 special creation before 1859 none was so clear or so 

 outspoken as Herbert Spencer, who thought out for 

 himself an evolutionary philosophy which was not 

 shaken by Darwin. It is impossible to discuss in this 

 place the question whether or not it was shaken by 

 Weismann. 



Agassiz's Essay on Classification, which was published 

 in October, 1857, was the last manifesto issued before 

 the Origin of Species by the party which stood out for 

 fixity of species, the last polemic which made De 

 Maillet, Lamarck, and the Vestiges its targets. It is 

 an eloquent but inconsiderate defence of an extreme 

 position. According to Agassiz every branch, class, 

 order, family, genus, and species represents a distinct 

 creative thought ; every mark of affinity, every appear- 

 ance of adaptation to surroundings, has been expressly 

 designed. Extinction and replacement of species are 

 due to the direct intervention of the Creator ; ptero- 

 dactyls are prophetic types of birds, and indicate that 

 divine wisdom had foreseen the possibility of an 

 advance in the organisation of animals which was not 

 immediately practicable ; the mallard and scaup duck 

 occur on both sides of the Atlantic because they were 



