138 EVOLUTION, OLD AND NEW. 



search of sustenance for our roots ; or they are as the 

 woody trunk of a tree ; we are the nerves which are 

 rooted in the brain, and which draw thence the suste- 

 nance which is supplied it by the stomach; our lungs 

 are leaves which are folded up within us, as the blossom 

 of a fig is hidden within the fruit itself. 



This is what should follow if Buffon's theory of the 

 brain is allowed to stand, which I hope will prove to be 

 the case, for it is the only comfortable thought con- 

 cerning the brain that I have met with in any writer. 

 I have given it here at some length on account of its 

 importance, and for the illustration it affords of Buffou's 

 hatred of mystery, rather than for its bearing upon 

 evolution. The fact that our leading men of science 

 have adopted other theories will weigh little with those 

 who have watched scientific orthodoxy with any close- 

 ness. What Buffon thought of that orthodoxy may be 

 gathered from the following : 



" The greatest obstacles to the advancement of human 

 knowledge lie less in things themselves than in man's 

 manner of considering them. However complicated a 

 machine the human body may be, it is still less com- 

 plicated than are our own ideas concerning it. It is 

 less difficult to see Nature as she is, than as she is 

 presented to us. She carries a veil only, while we would 

 put a mask over her face ; we load her with our own 

 prejudices, and suppose her to act and to conduct her 

 operations even after the same fashion as ourselves.* 

 ****** 



" I am by no means speaking of those purely arbitrary 

 * Tom. vii. p. 19, 1758. 



