178 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



There is another reason why we slinuld on occasions like the present 

 revise our views and acknowledge onr debt to those who have laboured 

 in the cause of trutli. They have been of the class that are always in 

 advance of their day. They are in the best sense of the word supermen^ 

 tliat is, represontatiires of the race as it is yet to be. The intellectual por- 

 tion of mankind, therefore, in honouring them proclaims the solidarity 

 throughout th.; ages of tlie aristoi of the race. What this means in our 

 intellectual development may best be conveyed in the words of a seven- 

 teenth century French author : '• II nous faut, si nous espérons de par- 

 venir à quelque gloire, hanter avec les morts." 



These preliminary observations bear on the ceremonies that are be- 

 ing arranged to celebrate the semi-centennial of the publication of the 

 " Origin of Species," and they are advanced now because of the view that 

 I hold tliat tliis Society should, at least on occasions like the present, 

 bring its tribute to the memory of tlie author of that epoch-making 

 work. The University of Cambridge, Darwin's Alma Mater, has issued 

 invitations to the Universities anrl learned Societies and Academies of 

 the world to send representatives to take part witli it next month in its 

 great assembly to do honour to him and his work. This Society has res- 

 ponded and has nominated one of its members. Professor W. H. Ellis, 

 as its representative at that function. We should not let the occasion 

 pass with tliat and it is, therefore, but fitting that in this Section I 

 should now, as President of it, offer a direct tribute to the great philoso- 

 phical naturalist for his service to the highest intellectual interests of 

 mankind. 



In attempting this duty I shall not, however, strive to give a com- 

 prehensive survey of his work. That duty T must leave to be performed 

 by others and in a manner that measures up to so colossal an achievement. 

 I shall coulent îuysolf with discussing some aspects of his great concept, 

 and with an attempt at an appraisement of what has been the effect on 

 our intellectual outlook. 



It has been often said that the doctrine of Evolution did not ori- 

 ginate with Darwin . That is true for Lamarck advanced it in his 

 " Philosophie Zoologique " published in 1809. It was postulated by Wolff 

 in 1759 in his " Theoria Generationis." It was " back of the mind " in 

 Oken's theory of the segmental character of the skull, a theory which was 

 also independently advanced by Goethe. This accounts for many passa- 

 ges in the literature of the earlier half of the nineteenth century which 

 are now interpreted as postulating a belief in evolution in ISTature. Se- 

 veral such passages may be found in " In Memoriam " published in 1850 

 but composed some years earlier. The Lamarckian hypothesis found a 

 more concrete expression in a speculative work of anonymous authorship 



