PART I 



PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION FROM THALES TO 

 LUCRETIUS 



B.C. 600-A.D. 50 



* These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having 

 seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them.' HEBREWS 

 xi. 13. 



'ONE event is always the son of another, and we 

 must never forget the parentage/ said a Bechuana 

 chief to Casalis the missionary. The barbarian 

 philosopher spoke wiser than he knew, for in his 

 words lay that doctrine of continuity and unity 

 which is the creed of modern science. They are a 

 suitable text to the discourse of this chapter, the 

 design of which is to bring out what the brilliancy 

 of present-day discoveries tends to throw into 

 shadow, namely, the antiquity of the ideas of which 

 those discoveries are the result. Although the 

 Theory of Evolution, as we define it, is new, the 

 speculations which made it possible are, at least, 

 twenty-five centuries old. Indeed, it is not practic- 

 able, since the remote past yields no documents, to 



B 



