120 THE HISTORY OF JEEATION. 



enlarged, and improved edition of the organic population had 

 appeared. Although the number of these editions of creation 

 was altogether problematical, and in truth could not be fixed 

 at all, and although the numerous advances which, during 

 this time, were made in all the departments of zoology and 

 botany demonstrated more and more that Cuvier's hypo- 

 thesis was unfounded and untenable, and that Lamarck's 

 natural theory of development was nearer the truth, yet the 

 former maintained its authority almost universally among 

 biologists. This must, above all, be ascribed to the venera- 

 tion which Cuvier had acquired, and strikingly illustrates 

 how injurious to the progress of humanity a faith in 

 any definite authority may become. Authority, as Goethe 

 once admirably said, perpetuates the individual, which 

 as an individual should pass away, rejects and allows to 

 pass that which should be held fast, and is the main 

 obstacle to the advance of humanity. 



It is only by having regard to the great weight of Cuvier's 

 authority, and to the mighty potency of human indolence, 

 which is with difficulty induced to depart from the broad 

 and comfortable way of everyday conceptions, and to enter 

 upon new paths not yet made easy, that we can comprehend 

 how it is that Lamarck's Theory of Descent did not gain its 

 due recognition until 1859, after Darwin had given it a new 

 foundation. The soil had long been prepared for it by the 

 works of Charles Lyell, another English naturalist, whose 

 views are of great importance for the natural history of 

 creation, and must accordingly here be briefly explained. 



In 1830 Charles Lyell published, under the title of 

 " Principles of Geology," a work in which he thoroughly 

 reformed the science of Geology and the history of the earth's 



