6 FROM THE GREEKS TO DARWIN 



Apart from suggestion we meet with many re- 

 markable coincidences in the hnes of independent 

 and even simultaneous discovery, notably those 

 between Erasmus Darwin and Lamarck in the 

 transmission of acquired adaptations, between 

 Lamarck and Treviranus in the conception of bi- 

 ology as an independent branch of science, before 

 we reach the crowning and most exceptional case 

 of Darwin and Wallace. At different periods 

 similar facts were leading men to similar con- 

 clusions, and we gather many fine illustrations of 

 the force of unconscious induction. Means of in- 

 tercommunication were slow, and we should ad- 

 vance cautiously before concluding that any of 

 the greater evolutionists were dealing with bor- 

 rowed ideas. 



Finally, I have attempted to estimate each au- 

 thor from his thought as a whole, before placing 

 him in the scales with his predecessors, contem- 

 poraries, and successors. When we study single 

 passages, we are often led widely afield. Haeckel, 

 for example, appears to have far overstated the 

 relative merits of Oken, a transcendental or 

 metaphysical anatomist who shines forth brightly 

 in certain passages, and goes under a cloud in 

 others, his sum total being obscure and weak. 

 Without sufficient consideration, Krause has 

 placed Erasmus Darwin over Lamarck. Huxley 

 has treated Treviranus and Lamarck with almost 



