AN HISTORICAL SKETCH 



OF THE PROGRESS OF OPINION ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES, 



PREVIOUSLY TO THE PUBLICATION OF THE FIRST EDITION 

 OF THIS WORK. 



I WILL here give a brief sketch of the progress of opinion on the 

 Origin of Species. Until recently the great majority of natural- 

 ists believed that species were immutable productions, and had 

 been separately created. This view has been ably maintained by 

 many authors. Some few naturalists, on the other hand, have 

 believed that species undergo modification, and that the existing 

 forms of life are the descendants by true generation of pre-exist- 

 ing forms. Passing over allusions to the subject in the c'assical 

 writers,* the first author who in modern times has treated it in a 

 scientific spirit was Buffon. But as his opinions fluctuated greatly 

 at different periods, and as he does not enter on the causes or 

 means of the transformation of species, I need not here enter on 

 details. 



Lamarck was the first man whose conclusions on the subject 

 excited much attention. This justly-celebrated naturalist first 



* Aristotle, in his 'Physicse Auscultationes ' (lib. 2, cap. 8, s. 2), after 

 remarking that rain does not fall in order to make the corn grow, any more 

 than it falls to spoil the farmer's corn when threshed out of doors, applies the 

 same argument to organisation ; and adds (as translated by Mr. Clair Grece, 

 who first pointed out the passage to me), " So what hinders the different parts 

 [of the body] from having this merely accidental relation in nature ? as the 

 teeth, for example, grow by necassity, the front ones sharp, adapted for dividing, 

 and the grinders flat, and serviceable for masticating the food ; since they were 

 not made for the sake of this, but it was the result of accident. And in like 

 manner as to the other parts in which there appears to exist an adaptation to 

 an end. Wheresoever, therefore, all things together (that is all the parts of 

 one whole) happened like as if they were made for the sake of something, these 

 were preserved, having been appropriately constituted by an internal sponta- 

 neity ; and whatsoever things were not thus constituted, perished, and still 

 perish." We here see the principle of natural selection shadowed forth, but 

 now little Aristotle fully comprehended the principle, is shown by his remarks 

 ou the formation of the teeth. 



