234 NATURAL HISTORY. 



and at the same time of the great changes they undergo 

 both before and after their nativity ; and by considering 

 in how minute a portion of time many of the changes of 

 the animals above described have been produced ; would 

 it be too bold to imagine that all warm-blooded animals 

 have arisen from one living filament, which THE GREAT 

 FIRST CAUSE endued with animality, with the power 

 of acquiring new parts, attended with new propensities 

 directed by irritations, sensations, volitions, and associ- 

 ations; and thus possessing the faculty of continuing to 

 improve by its own inherent activity, and of delivering 

 down those improvements by generation to its posterity, 

 world without end ? ' 



It is clear, therefore, that Erasmus Darwin not only 

 taught the doctrine of the origin of species by descent 

 with modification, but he regarded the course of develop- 

 ment as an ascending one. This is rendered quite certain 

 by a still later passage, in which he expresses the opinion 

 that, 'from the beginning of the existence of this terra- 

 queous globe, the animals which inhabit it have con- 

 stantly improved, and are still in a state of progressive 

 improvement.' He adds, 'this idea of the gradual genera- 

 tion of all things seems to have been as familiar to the 

 ancient philosophers as to the modern ones; and to 

 have given rise to the beautiful hieroglyphic figure of 

 the *urov *>ov, or first great egg, produced by NIGHT that 

 is, whose origin is involved in obscurity, and animated 

 by t^os, that is, by DIVINE LOVE ; from whence proceeded 

 all things which exist' 



Not only did Erasmus Darwin accept the principle of 

 evolution as applied to living beings; but he quotes 



