92 EVOLUTION AND DOGMA. 



simply discovered by the wise." ' But this classifi- 

 cation, this division into species and genera, which, 

 according to Erigena, is something not artificial and 

 conventional, but something that is real and Divine, 

 applied, in the estimation of most philosophers 

 prior to the time of Darwin, not only to logic and 

 metaphysics but also to the natural sciences as 

 well. 



Linnaeus held similar views. He tells us ex- 

 plicitly that " the number of species is equal to the 

 number of divers forms which the Infinite Being 

 created in the beginning ; which forms, according to 

 the prescribed laws of generation, produced others, 

 but always like unto themselves." 1 



Cuvier on Species. 



But the strongest and most eminent advocate of 

 the creation and fixity of species was Cuvier. In the 

 introduction to his " Regne Animal " he asserts that 

 " there is no proof that all the differences which now 

 distinguish organized beings are such as may have 

 been produced by circumstances. All that has been 

 advanced upon this subject is hypothetical; experi- 

 ence seems to show, on the contrary, that, in the 

 actual state of things, varieties are confined within 



1 "Intelligitur quod ars ilia, quae dividet genera in species et 

 species in genera resolvit, quae 6ia/.eK.TtK^ dicitur, non ab humanis 

 machinationibus sit facta, sed in natura rerum ab Auctore 

 omnium artium, quse verse artes sunt, condita et a sapientibus 

 inventa." ' De Divisione Naturae," iv, 4. 



* " Species tot sunt, quot diversas formas ab initio produxit 

 Infinitum Ens; quse forma?, secundum generationis inditas leges, 

 produxere plures, at sibi semper similes." " Philosophia Bo- 

 tanica," 99,157. 



