140 BIOGRAPHIES OF SCIENTIFIC MEN 



with the physics and chemistry of his time. " Before 

 Laplace, he elaborated a hypothesis as to the origin of 

 the solar system ; before Hutton and Lyell, he realized 

 the causes like those now at work had, in the long past, 

 sculptured the earth ; he had a special theory of heredity 

 not unlike Darwin's, and a by no means narrow theory 

 of evolution, in which he recognized the struggle for 

 existence and the elimination of the unfit ('the survival 

 of the fittest' of Herbert Spencer, and the * natural 

 selection ' of Charles Darwin), the influence of isolation 

 and of artificial selection, but especially the direct action 

 of food, climate, and other surrounding influences upon 

 the organism " : and his writings paved the way for the 

 doctrine of descent. Buffon saw, with a philosophic eye, 

 the unity of nature ; and no doubt he would have seen 

 more, and written more, if orthodox creeds had not stood 

 in his way. He had always to keep an eye on the 

 Sorbonne ! 



Living in the renaissance of science, Buffon was no 

 believer in the permanent stability of species. He says, 

 e.g., "the pig does not appear to have been formed upon 

 an original, special, and perfect plan, since it is a com- 

 pound of other animals ; it has evidently useless parts, 

 or rather parts of which it cannot make any use toes, 

 all the bones of which are perfectly formed, and which, 

 nevertheless, are of no service to it. Nature is far from 

 subjecting herself to final causes in the formation of her 



