ANTICIPATION AND INTERPRETATION 31 



the origin of man. It is therefore a striking case 

 of parallelism that the advance of our knowledge 

 of development has repeated the actual cosmic 

 order of development. Man first perceived Evo- 

 lution in objects most remote, gradually in ob- 

 jects nearer to him, finally in himself. 



Advance of Geology, Zoology, Comparative 

 Anatomy and Paleontology 



The general state of knowledge of the differ- 

 ent forms of life, next to the suggestiveness of 

 Philosophy, was the most important factor in the 

 environment of the evolution idea, as food to 

 the organism. The comparatively elementary 

 knowledge of Aristotle rendered his speculations 

 upon Evolution, at most, happy guesses at the 

 truth. Embryology, palaeontology, comparative 

 anatomy, and geographic distribution, the four 

 pillars of modern evidences of Evolution, arose 

 in the eighteenth century, but were not built into 

 their scientific inductive form until the nine- 

 teenth century. 



Yet the Greek traditions in natural history 

 persisted as the environment of the evolution 

 idea as late as the end of the eighteenth century, 

 and, as we shall see, the idea itself was framed 

 solely upon Greek speculation. Most prominent 

 among these Greek guesses at the truth was the 



