134 EVOLUTIONISTS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 



of type, he seems to indicate that, in creating ani- 

 mals, the Supreme Being only employed a single 

 idea, and at the same time varied it in every possi- 

 ble manner ; passing on to the unity of type which 

 pervades certain families, he says, in effect : If we 

 reason out this matter, we find that the fundamen- 

 tal idea of the family is community of origin for the 

 man and the ape, as well as for the horse and the 

 ass. The ass is a degenerate horse ; the ape is a 

 degenerate man. In carrying this back to its logi- 

 cal extreme, we are forced to admit that these 

 animals sprang from a common source, from one 

 animal, which, in the succession of time, has pro- 

 duced by perfecting itself (se perfectionnant\ and 

 by degeneration, all the races of other animals. 

 But no, he continues (whether seriously or not it is 

 hard to say), it is certain by Revelation that all 

 animals have shared the benefits of direct creation, 

 and have issued, completely formed, pair by pair, 

 from the hands of the Creator. 



" . . . Mais non : il est certain, par la revelation, que tous les 

 animaux ont galement participe" a la grace de la creation ; que 

 les deux premiers de chaque espece, et de toutes les especes, sont 

 sortis tout forme's des mains du Cre"ateur ; et Ton doit croire qu'ils 

 e"taient tels a peu pres qu'ils nous sont aujourd'hui repre"sente"s 

 par leurs descendants." 



It is this wavering of opinion and this change 

 from earlier to later views which has led different 

 writers to hold such widely different opinions as to 

 Buffon's share in the development of the Evolution 



