HISTORICAL SKETCH. xix 



fitre de valeur gen&rique." In his ' Hist. Nat. Generale ' (torn. ii. 

 p. 430, 1859) he amplifies analogous conclusions. 



From a circular lately issued it appears that Dr. Freke, in 1851 

 (' Dublin Medical Press,' p. 322), propounded the doctrine that all 

 organic beings have descended from one primordial form. His 

 grounds of belief and treatment of the subject are wholly different 

 from mine ; but as Dr. Freke has now (1861) published his Essay 

 on the ' Origin of Species by means of Organic Affinity,' the diffi- 

 cult attempt to give any idea of his views would be superfluous 

 on my part. 



Mr. Herbert Spencer, in an Essay (originally published in the 

 ' Leader,' March, 1852, and republished in his ' Essays,' in 1858), 

 has contrasted the theories of the Creation and the Development 

 of organic beings with remarkable skill and force. He argues 

 from the analogy of domestic productions, from the changes 

 which the embryos of many species undergo, from the difficulty of 

 distinguishing species and varieties, and from the principle of 

 general gradation, that species have been modified ; and he 

 attributes the modification to the change of circumstances. The 

 author (1855) has also treated Psychology on the principle of the 

 necessary acquirement of each mental power and capacity by 

 gradation. 



In 1852 M. Naudin, a distinguished botanist, expressly stated, 

 in an admirable paper on the Origin of Species (' Revue Horticole, 

 p. 102 ; since partly republished in the ' Nouvelles Archives du 

 Museum,' torn. i. p. 171), his belief that species are formed in an 

 analogous manner as varieties are under cultivation ; and the 

 latter process he attributes to man's power of selection. But he 

 does not show how selection acts under nature. He believes, like 

 Dean Herbert, that species, when nascent, were more plastic than 

 at present. He lays weight on what he calls the principle of 

 finality, " puissance mysterieuse, indeterminee ; fatalite pour les 

 uns ; pour les autres, volonte providentielle, dont 1'action inces- 

 sante sur les etres vivants determine, a toutes les epoques de 

 1'existence du monde, la forme, le volume, et la duree de chacun 

 d'eux, en raison de sa destinee dans 1'ordre de choses dont il fait 

 partie. C'est cette puissance qui harmonise chaque membre a 

 1'ensemble, en 1'appropriant a la fonction qu'il doit remplir dans 

 1'organisme general de la nature, fonction qui est pour lui sa raison 

 d'etre."* 



* From references in Bronn's ' Untersuchungen iiber die Entwickelungs- 

 Gesetze,' it appears that the celebrated botanist and palaeontologist linger 

 published, in 1852, his belief that species undergo development and modifica- 

 tion. Dalton, likewise, in Pander and Dalton's work on Fossil Sloths, ex- 

 pressed, in 1821, a similar belief. Similar views have, as is well known, 

 oeen maintained by Oken in his mystical ' Natur-Philosophie.' From other 



