EARLY EVOLU TIONA R Y VIE WS. 25 



Kepler's laws were based on the observations of 

 Tycho Brahe ; Newton's great discovery of the law 

 of universal gravitation was founded on Abb Pic- 

 ard's measurement of the earth's meridian ; and 

 Leverrier's discovery of the planet Neptune was 

 suggested by the perturbations which various astron- 

 omers had observed in the motion of Uranus. So, 

 too, is it, but to a greater extent, in respect of 

 the theory of Evolution. It is the result not only 

 of the observations of the immediate predecessors 

 of those who are now regarded as the founders of 

 the theory, but of data which have been amassed 

 and of reflections which philosophers have been 

 making since our Aryan forefathers first began to in- 

 terrogate nature and seek a rational explanation of 

 the various mutations which were observed to char- 

 acterize the earth's surface and its inhabitants. 



Evolution Among the Greeks. 



Thales, who was one of the first philosophers 

 that attempted a natural explanation of the uni- 

 verse, in lieu of the myths which had so long ob- 

 tained, taught that all life had its origin in water. 

 Anaximander, who flourished six centuries B.C., 

 seems to forestall certain evolutionary theories 

 which were taught twenty-five hundred years later. 

 " The first animals," ra r.p&ra Z<ua, he tells us, " were 

 begotten in moisture and earth." Man, according 

 to the same philosopher, " must have been born from 

 animals of a different form, ^ AAJ<HOI/ J>wv, f or> 

 whereas other animals easily get their food by them- 

 selves, man alone requires long rearing. Hence, had 



