276 NATURAL HISTORY. 



beyond our comprehension. The theory of the origin 

 of species by special creation laboured under the 

 inevitable defect that it 'closed the record/ and in 

 many directions shut the door to further research. The 

 theory of the origin of species by means of natural 

 selection has not only brought to light a whole series 

 of problems, many of which are of a most far-reaching 

 character, but it has solved some of them, and has 

 pointed out to us the way in which others may yet 

 be solved at some future date. 



As has been seen, the theory that the present state of 

 the natural world was the result of its evolution from 

 a former state did not originate with Darwin. Like 

 others of the profoundest conceptions of the human 

 mind, it had been more or less clearly recognised by 

 more than one earlier philosopher, and notably by 

 Erasmus Darwin and Lamarck. The theory that the 

 ' species ' of animals and plants now in existence had 

 been produced by the modification of pre-existing forms 

 of life, and that species were therefore not immutable, 

 also did not originate with Darwin. Lamarck had 

 definitely promulgated this theory, and other writers 

 such as Erasmus Darwin and Goethe in the early part 

 of this century or the close of the last, had put forth 

 similar ideas. Lamarck's views, however, had remained 

 little more than a barren speculation unheeded by 

 most, and scoffed at by many and no change had been 

 produced in the generally accepted views as to the 

 nature of ' species ' by the publication of the ' Philo- 

 sophic Zoologique.' To Darwin is incontestably due the 

 pre-eminent merit of having established a theory which 



