HISTORY OF EVOLUTION — PETRONIEVICS. 329 



the slow evolution of the surface of the earth. Averroes is an inter- 

 preter of Aristotle in evolutionistic sense. But, in general, the Ara- 

 bian philosophers and naturalists are faithful disciples of Aristotle. 



During the Renaissance, Giordano Bruno, although quite modern 

 in his theory of the infinitude of the universe, does not declare him- 

 self clearly upon the question of an evolution in the universe. He 

 teaches the evolution of the earth's surface, but he stands with 

 Aristotle in regard to the organic world. The Jesuit, Father Suarez, 

 is the first man who set forth in a perfectly clear manner, the doc- 

 trine of the special creation of organic species, a theory which will 

 play an important part in the discussion of modern naturalists. 



Among modern philosophers, Francis Bacon is the first to put 

 forth the question of the possibility of a transformation in the vari- 

 ous species, without in any way admitting sympathy with the idea 

 of transformationism. Descartes teaches the evolution of the inor- 

 ganic world (the steller system, the solar system, the earth), but 

 he quite neglects the question of an evolution in the organic world. 



G. W. Leibnitz is interesting on account of several of his doctrines. 

 He formulated these : — 1. The famous principle of continuity, which 

 he defines in regard to the organic world in the following terms: 

 "The different species of animals are all parts of a single chain 

 whose links are so intimately fastened together that it can not be 

 determined, either by observation or by imagination where one link 

 ends and the next begins"; 2. Leibnitz teaches the eternality of 

 organic germs ; 3. He formulates the principle of an immanent evo- 

 lution of the mind (from the monad) ; 4. He expresses hypotheti- 

 c-ally the principle of a world evolution, when he says in a passage 

 in his " Theodicee," that it might be true, that the universe was ever 

 progressing from good to better. In opposition to Leibnitz, the 

 metaphysical system of Spinoza, like that of Aristotle, is the type 

 of an antievolutionistic system, the material world and the spiritual 

 world being both, according to Spinoza, the two eternal attributes 

 of the divine substance. 



Among the philosophers of the English empirical school we must 

 first mention David Hume, who admits the possibility and even the 

 probability of the doctrine of evolution in opposition to that of 

 creation. But Erasmus Darwin, the English naturalist, goes even 

 further than Hume; he openly takes up the theory of organic 

 transformation and he sets forth an elaborate system of ingenious 

 explanations. A little before him, the celebrated English geologist, 

 James Hutton, had developed for the first time the doctrine of the 

 slow and uniform evolution of the earth's surface. 



Kant, the great creator of critical philosophy, engages our atten- 

 tion by several of his doctrines. To begin with, he tried to develop 



