226 NATURAL HISTORY. 



that to Erasmus Darwin, rather than to Lamarck, belongs 

 the honour of having first given coherent expression to 

 those vague ideas as to the origin of species from pre- 

 existent species, which, floating formlessly in the minds of 

 many of the thinkers of this period, ultimately crystallised 

 into the modern theory of 'Descent with Modification.' 

 It is only, however, when read in the light of our present 

 knowledge that the real value of Erasmus Darwin's 

 'ZoonormV becomes evident, and that we can recognise 

 how greatly it was, as regards some of its leading ideas, 

 in advance of the time at which it was written. In this 

 respect, as remarked by Dr Krause, Erasmus Darwin 

 suffered a fate similar to that of Goethe, 'in whose 

 prophetic glances into the world of science the experts of 

 the day would see nothing but the melancholy con- 

 sequences of dilettanteism.' 



It would be out of place here to enter into a detailed 

 analysis of a work so complex, and in many respects so 

 miscellaneous, as the 'Zoonomia;' but it may be of interest 

 to indicate to what extent it contained the germs of the 

 modern theories of evolution. It is to be remembered 

 that Erasmus Darwin lived and wrote at a time when the 

 great majority of naturalists believed implicitly in the 

 doctrine of the immutability of 'species.' A few writers 

 had ventured to suggest the possibility of the transmuta- 

 tion of species, but mostly in doubtful fashion, or upon 

 purely speculative grounds. Buffon, about the middle of 

 the eighteenth century, had clearly hinted in his ' Histoire 

 Naturelle ' at the possible, or even probable, evolution of 

 species from pre-existing species \ but he had so carefully 

 hedged upon the point, that his opinion was deprived of 



