EVOLUTION 41 



find himself shortly ensconced in free quarters, and kept 

 there for the term of his natural existence without expense 

 to his heirs or executors. So Buffon did not venture to 

 say outright that he thought all animals and plants were 

 descended one from the other with slight modifications ; 

 that would have been wicked, and the Sorbonne would have 

 proved its wickedness to him in a most conclusive fashion 

 by promptly getting him imprisoned or silenced. It is so 

 easy to confute your opponent when you are a hundred 

 strong and he is one weak unit. Buffon merely said, there- 

 fore, that if we didn't know the contrary to be the case by 

 sure warrant, we might easily have concluded (so fallible 

 is our reason) that animals always varied slightly, and that 

 such variations, indefinitely accumulated, would suffice to 

 account for almost any amount of ultimate difference. A 

 donkey might thus have grown into a horse, and a bird 

 might have developed from a primitive lizard. Only we know 

 it was quite otherwise ! A quiet hint from Buffon was as 

 good as a declaration from many less knowing or suggestive 

 people. All over Europe, the wise took Buffon's hint for 

 what he meant it ; and the unwise blandly passed it by as 

 a mere passing little foolish vagary of that great ironical 

 writer and thinker. 



Erasmus Darwin, the grandfather of his grandson, was 

 no fool ; on the contrary, he was the most far-sighted man 

 of his day in England ; he saw at once what Buffon was 

 driving at ; and he worked out ' Mr. Buffon's ' half-concealed 

 hint to all its natural and legitimate conclusions. The 

 great Count was always plain Mr. Buffon to his English 

 contemporary. Life, said Erasmus Darwin nearly a century 

 since, began in very minute marine forms, which gradually 

 acquired fresh powers and larger bodies, so as imperceptibly 

 to transform themselves into different creatures. Man, he 

 remarked, anticipating his descendant, takes rabbits or 



