186 EVOLUTION 



Chambers, and many others. Darwin refers 

 to thirty-four more or less evolutionist 

 authors in his Historical Sketch, and the list 

 might be added to. Especially when we come 

 near 1858 do the numbers increase, and we 

 must never forget that Herbert Spencer not 

 only marshalled the arguments for Evolution 

 in a very forcible way in 1852, but applied 

 the formula in detail in his " Principles of 

 Psychology " in 1855. We must also re- 

 member that the genetic view of nature was 

 insinuating itself in regard to other than bio- 

 logical orders of facts, here a little and there 

 a little, and that the scientific temper had 

 ripened considerably since the days when 

 Cuvier laughed Lamarck out of court. 



We have inserted this historical reference 

 to pre-Darwinian evolutionists, since it is 

 important to shake ourselves free from all 

 creationist appreciations of Darwin; but it 

 would be a perversion of history to suggest 

 that he simply entered into the labours of his 

 predecessors. In point of fact, he knew very 

 little about them till after he had been for 

 years at work. Let us ask rather how it was 

 that Darwin succeeded in winning a world- 

 wide acceptance of the evolution idea, where 

 so many others had failed ! 



Because, in the first place, he had clear 



