LAMARCK'S PHILOSOPHICAL POSITION. 2 Si 



ture and instinct." Mr. Darwin continues, that Lamarck 

 " seems " to have been chiefly led to his conclusion on 

 the gradual change of species, "by the difficulty of 

 distinguishing species and varieties, by the almost 

 perfect gradation of forms in certain groups, and by the 

 analogy of domestic productions." 



Lamarck would probably have said that thougli lie 

 did indeed turn as Mr. Darwin has done, and as Buffon 

 and Dr. Darwin had done before him to animals and 

 plants under domestication, in illustration and support 

 of the th ory of descent with modification ; and that 

 though he did also insist, as so many other writers have 

 done, on the arbitrary and artificial nature of the dis- 

 tinction between species and varieties, he was mainly 

 led to agree with Buffon and Dr. Darwin by a broad 

 survey of the animal kingdom, with the details also of 

 which few naturalists have ever been better acquainted. 



" Great," says Mr. Darwin, " is the power of steady 

 misrepresentation," and greatly indeed has the just 

 fame of Lamarck been eclipsed in consequence ; " but," 

 as Mr. Darwin finely continues, "the history of science 

 shows that fortunately this power does not long 

 endure." * 



That Lamarck anticipated it, was prepared to face 

 it, and even felt that things were thus, after all, as they 

 should be, will appear from the shrewd and pleasant 

 passage which is to be found near the close of his 

 preface : 



" So great is the power of preconceived opinion, 

 especially when any personal interest is enlisted on the 



* ' Origin of Species,' p. 421, ed. 1876. 



