THE DOGMA OF EVOLUTION 



was at the height of its reputation, Darwin was looked 

 upon as the master intellect of the age and Darwin- 

 ism became the synonym for evolution. The very 

 dominance of the ideas of Darwinian evolution and 

 of fatalistic progress caused a revulsion of feeling, 

 and today the doctrine is rapidly waning. 



While there are probably many causes for the dif- 

 ference in the historical reception of the two theories, 

 it is safe to say that Darwin's quick success was due to 

 the claim of his followers that he was the greatest 

 exponent of the inductive method. Because he had 

 based his theory of natural selection on a mass of 

 carefully selected observations and experiments, so 

 he had been able for the first time to proceed step by 

 step on sure ground to lay the experimental founda- 

 tions of an adequate theory. Lamarck was, on the 

 other hand, pictured as a deductive philosopher who 

 had jumped by a guess at his theory and had left it 

 unsupported by observation or experiment. Whatever 

 may be the relative merits of the two theories, the 

 converse of this idea is the truth. 



Lamarck begins his scientific career as a special 

 creationist and continues in that belief, in spite of 

 his intimacy with Buffon, until the age of fifty-five, 

 as nearly as we can determine. He finally sketches 

 his theory of variation and then waits eight years 

 longer before he gives it a full exposition as the result 

 of the mature refliection of a life spent in scientific 

 work. And we must remember that he had been one of 



i: 166] 



