PREFACE. 



THIS volume has grown out of lectures first de- 

 livered in Princeton in 1890, upon the period 

 between Buffon and Darwin, and completed in a 

 fuller course delivered in Columbia in 1893, which 

 covered also the period before Buffon. When I 

 began the study, my object was to bring forward 

 the many strong and true features of pre-Darwinian 

 Evolution, which are so generally passed over or 

 misunderstood. When all the materials were 

 brought together from the earliest times, the evi- 

 dence of continuity in the development of the idea 

 became more clear, and to trace these lines of 

 development has gradually become the central 

 motive of these lectures. More thorough research, 

 which may, perhaps, be stimulated by these out- 

 lines will, I believe, strengthen this evidence. 



I am greatly indebted to my friends Professor 

 George Macloskie and Professor Alexander T. 

 Ormond for assistance and critical advice in con- 

 nection with the revision of the proofs. 



H. F. O. 



COLUMBIA COLLEGE, July nth, 1894. 



vii 



