424 LAMARCK, HIS LIFE AND WORK 
We have cited the foregoing conclusions and opin- 
ions of upwards of forty working biologists, many of 
whom were brought up, so to speak, in the Darwin- 
ian faith, to show that the pendulum of evolutionary 
thought is swinging away from the narrow and re- 
stricted conception of natural selection, pure and 
simple, as the sole or most important factor, and 
returning in the direction of Lamarckism. 
We may venture to say of Lamarck what Huxley 
once said of Descartes; that he expressed’ the 
thoughts which will be everybody’s two or three 
centuries after’’ him. Only the change of belief, 
due to the rapid accumulation of observed facts, 
has come in a period shorter than ‘‘ two or three 
centuries;’” for, at’ the end of the very century, 
in which Lamarck, whatever ‘his crudities, vague- 
ness, and lack of observations and experiments, 
published his views, wherein are laid the foundations 
on which natural selection rests, the consensus of 
opinion as to the direct and indirect influence of the 
environment, and the inadequacy of natural selec- 
tion as an initial factor, was becoming stronger and 
deeper-rooted each year. 
We must never forget or underestimate, however, 
the inestimable value of the services rendered by 
Darwin, who by his patience, industry, and rare 
genius for observation and experiment, and _ his 
powers of lucid exposition, convinced the world of 
the truth of evolution, with the result that it has 
transformed the philosophy of our day. We are all 
of us evolutionists, though we may differ as to the 
nature of the efficient causes. 
