ANTICIPATION AND INTERPRETATION 13 



first half of the nineteenth century, such as Cu- 

 vier, Owen, and Agassiz. 



The history of the central evolution idea be- 

 fore Darwin therefore follows its rise and fall as 

 the broad central explanation of the history of 

 life, w^hich we must throw into contrast with the 

 steady rise of the special knowledge of the lesser 

 ideas which center in it. As a whole, it rose among 

 the Greeks, declined with the decay of Greek sci- 

 ence, was kept alive by Greek influence in the- 

 ology, and fell in ecclesiastic opposition to ra- 

 tionalism and the age of reason. When it was 

 first revived in France and Germany, it was 

 either inspired by Greek freedom of speculation 

 and suggestiveness, or permeated by Greek fal- 

 lacies. 



In the first revival the natural philosophers of 

 France and Germany took the lead, followed, in 

 the second, by a series of rashly speculative writ- 

 ers. Then the working and observing naturalists 

 took up Evolution as a biological problem. Con- 

 sidering the Greek movement as the first, this 

 was the second genuine progressive movement 

 toward the evolution theory ; it reached its height 

 with Lamarck, Geoffroy and Goethe, and then 

 declined, or rather failed to make a permanent 

 or wide-spread impression. In the middle of the 

 nineteenth century, all the ground gained was 

 apparently but not really lost; science, church, 

 and laity were almost at one upon the 'special 



