1 THE DARWINIAN HYPOTHESIS 11 



duced by a distinct creative act. The second 

 position is obviously incapable of proof or disproof, 

 the direct operations of the Creator not being 

 subjects of science ; and it must therefore be 

 regarded as a corollary from the first, the truth 

 or falsehood of which is a matter of evidence. 

 Most persons imagine that the arguments in 

 favour of it are overwhelming ; but to some few 

 minds, and these, it must be confessed, intellects 

 of no small power and grasp of knowledge, they 

 have not brought conviction. Among these 

 minds, that of the famous naturalist Lamarck, 

 who possessed a greater acquaintance with the 

 lower forms of life than any man of his day, 

 Cuvier not excepted, and was a good botanist to 

 boot, occupies a prominent place. 



Two facts appear to have strongly affected the 

 course of thought of this remarkable man the 

 one, that finer or stronger links of affinity connect 

 all living beings with one another, and that thus 

 the highest creature grades by multitudinous 

 steps into the lowest ; the other, that an organ 

 may be developed in particular directions by 

 exerting itself in particular ways, and that modi 

 fications once induced may be transmitted and 

 become hereditary. Putting these facts together, 

 Lamarck endeavoured to account for the first by 

 the operation of the second. Place an animal in 

 new circumstances, says he, and its needs will be 

 altered ; the new needs will create new desires, and 



