2 8 Unconscious Memory 



out that, in view of the known modifications wliich had 

 been effected among our domesticated animals and culti- 

 vated plants, the ass and the horse should be considered 

 as, in all probability, descended from a common ancestor ; 

 yet, if this is so, he writes — if the point " were once gained 

 that among animals and vegetables there had been, I do 

 not say several species, but even a single one, which had 

 been produced in the course of direct descent from another 

 species ; if, for example, it could be once shown that the 

 ass was but a degeneration from the horse, then there is 

 no further limit to be set to the power of Nature, and we 

 should not be wrong in supposing that, with sufficient time, 

 she has evolved all other organised forms from one primor- 

 dial type " ^ {et Voii ii'auroit pas tort de supposer, que d'un 

 seiil ctre die a su iirer avcc le temps ions les autres clres 

 organises). 



This, I imagine, in spite of Professor Huxle3''s dictum, 

 is contributing a good deal to the general doctrine of evolu- 

 tion ; for though Descartes and Leibnitz may have thrown 

 out hints pointing more or less broadly in the direction of 

 evolution, some of w^iich Professor Huxley has quoted, 

 he has adduced nothing approaching to the passage from 

 Buffon given above, either in respect of the clearness with 

 which the conclusion intended to be arrived at is pointed 

 out, or the breadth of view with which the whole ground 

 of animal and vegetable nature is covered. The passage 

 referred to is only one of many to the same effect, and 

 must be connected with one quoted in " Evolution, Old 

 and New," - from p. 13 of Button's first volume, which 

 appeared in 1749, and than which nothing can well point 

 more plainly in the direction of evolution. It is not easy, 

 therefore, to understand why Professor Huxley should 

 give 1753-78 as the date of Button's work, nor yet why he 

 should say that Buffon was " at first a partisan of the 



^ See " Evolution, Old and New," p. 91, and Buffon, torn. iv. 

 p. 3S3, ed. 1753. 



* Evolution, Old and New, p. 104. 



