230 DARWIN. 



Natural Selection ; second, as of considerable im- 

 portance, the E. Darwin- Lamarck factor of the in- 

 heritance of the effects of use and disuse ; third, as 

 still of some importance, the Buffon factor of the 

 direct action of the environment. Yet he reached 

 each of these factors, not so much through the 

 arguments advanced by their authors, as by his 

 own and by contemporary observations. 



All this connects Darwin with the past; not by 

 way of diminishing his lustre, but of doing the 

 past justice. And now a word as to the method 

 which enabled him, in a single lifetime, to leap 

 along over the progress of centuries. The long 

 retention of his theory from publication marks the 

 contrast of his caution with the impetuousness of 

 Lamarck. He sought a hundred facts and obser- 

 vations where his predecessors had sought one ; 

 his notes filled volumes, and he stands out as the 

 first evolutionist who worked 'upon true Baconian 

 principles.' It was this characteristic which, com- 

 bined with his originality, won the battle for the 

 Evolution idea. As Canon Kingsley wrote to 

 Maurice : " Darwin is conquering everywhere, and 

 rushing in like a flood by the mere force of truth 

 and fact." When the grandfather, Erasmus Dar- 

 win, held back at the inadequacy of his own theory 

 to explain the origin of adaptation in colour, he dis- 

 played the rare scientific temper which he trans- 

 mitted to the grandson. Krause has pointed out, 

 what is in fact most obvious, how largely the 



