I0 8 PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION. 



sis, and of reading into it a view which it does not 

 express." 



While the ground in favour of the literal inter- 

 pretation of Genesis was being contested, an invad- 

 ing force, that had been gathering strength with the 

 years, was advancing in the shape of the science of 

 Biology. The workers therein fall into two classes: 

 the one, represented by Linnaeus and his school, ap- 

 plied themselves to the classifying and naming of 

 plants and animals; the other, represented by Cuvier 

 and his school, examined into structure and func- 

 tion. Anatomy made clear the machinery: physi- 

 ology the work which it did, and the conditions under 

 which the work was done. Then, through compari- 

 son of corresponding organs and their functions in 

 various life-forms, came growing perception of their 

 unity. But only to a few came gleams of that unity 

 as proof of common descent of plant and animal, 

 for, save in scattered hints of inter-relation between 

 species, which occur from the time of Lord Bacon 

 onward, the theory of their immutability was domi- 

 nant until forty years ago. 



Four men form the chief vanguard of the biologi- 

 cal movement. " Modern classificatory method and 

 nomenclature have largely grown out of the work 

 of Linnaeus; the modern conception of biology, as a 

 science, and of its relation to climatology, geogra- 

 phy, and geology, are as largely rooted in the labours 

 of Buffon; comparative anatomy and palaeontology 

 owe a vast debt to Cuvier's results; while inverte- 



