260 THE DEVELOPMENT HYPOTHESIS 



that of the "Yestiges," was given to the world long before, 

 — in 1802 ; at a time when it had not been ascertained that 

 there existed placoids during the Silurian period, or ganoids 

 during the Old Red Sandstone period, or enaliosaurs during 

 the Oolitic period ; and when, though Smith had constructed 

 his " Tabular Yiew of the British Strata," his map had not 

 yet appeared, and there was little more known regarding the 

 laws of superposition among the stratified rocks than was to 

 be found in the writings of Werner. And if the presump- 

 tion be strong, in the circumstances, that Lamarck originated 

 his development hypothesis ere he became in any very great 

 degree skilful as a zoologist, it is no mere presumption, but a 

 demonstrable truth, that he originated it ere he became a 

 geologist ; for a geologist he never became. In common with 

 Maillet and Buffon, he held by Leibnitz's theory of a univer- 

 sal ocean ; and such, as we have already seen, was his igno- 

 rance of fossils, that he erected dermal fragments of the Rus- 

 sian Asterolepis into a new genus of Polyparia, — an error into 

 which the merest tyro in palaeontology could not now fall. 

 Such, in relation to these sciences, was the man who perfected 

 the dream of development. Nor has the most distinguished 

 of its Continental assertors now living, — Professor Oken, — 

 any higher claim to be regarded as a disciple of the inductive 

 school of Geology than Lamarck. In the preface to the re- 

 cently published translation of his " Physio-Philosophy," we 

 find the following curious confession : — " I wrote the first 

 edition of ISIO in a kind of inspiration, and on that account 

 it was not so well arranged as a systematic work ought to be. 

 Kow, though this may appear to have been amended in the 

 second and third editions, yet still it was not possible for me 

 to completely attain the object held in view. The book has 

 therefore remained essentially the same as regards its funda- 

 mental principles. It is only the empirical arrangement into 

 series of plants and animals that has been modified from time 



