ORGANIC EVOLUTION 29 



produced from very small beginnings, increasing by 

 the activity of its inherent principles, rather than by 

 a sudden evolution of the whole by the almighty fire. 

 What a magnificent idea of the infinite power of THE 

 GREAT ARCHITECT ! The Cause of causes. Parent of 

 parents. Ens entium.' 



De Maillet, writing in 1735,. showed a definite idea 

 of the production of existing species by the modifica- 

 tion of their predecessors. At the beginning of the 

 nineteenth century similar speculations were published 

 by Goethe and by Treviranus, and the latter was the 

 first to apply the term * biology ' to the science of the 

 phenomena of life. Lamarck about the same time pro- 

 vided a definite theory as to the method by which the 

 modification of species takes place. 



Before discussing Lamarck's hypothesis and the 

 alternative theories more recently proposed, it will be 

 well to pass in review the evidence upon which is 

 based our belief that the species of animals and plants 

 have arisen through the modification of pre-existing 

 species, and to show that the greater part of this evi- 

 dence is quite independent of any views which we may 

 adopt as to the actual method by which a particular 

 species came into existence. And in the first place we 

 may point out the entire absence of any evidence, direct 

 or indirect, in favour of the alternative supposition of 

 a special creation of each separate species. 



The evidence for evolution falls naturally into a 

 number of fairly well defined sections :* 



* A modification of the list given by Huxley, ' Collected 

 Essays,' vol. ii., p. 205. 



