EIGHTEENTH CENTURY EVOLUTIONISTS 163 



comedies. In the latter part of the century ap- 

 peared the Mundus Suhtcrrancus^ of Father 

 Kircher, full of 'authentic observations' of the 

 same stamp; the worthy priest describes orchids 

 giving birth to birds and even to very small men ; 

 this occurs when they touch the ground, where a 

 sort of fecundation occurs by the spermaticus 

 humor super fluus humo sparsus — uhi congressu^ 

 foetus est. 



De Maillet (1656-1738) 



Benoit de Maillet did not pause long over the 

 dry facts within the reach of contemporary 

 natural science in his famous Telliamed, In his 

 earlier years, before this book was written, we 

 learn that he was a careful student of geology 

 and palaeontology and that he perceived the true 

 nature and origin of fossils, as he may have done 

 by recourse to the Italian pioneers of palaeon- 

 tology. This in itself entitles him to considerable 

 credit, when we remember that at the time there 

 were wide differences of opinion regarding fos- 

 sils. Natural theology found in them proofs of 

 the universal deluge, while such an acute thinker 

 as Voltaire, who scoffed alternately at religion 

 and science, claimed that the shells on the moun- 

 tain-tops had been thrown aside by pilgrims on 



1 Amsterdam, 1678, 2 vols. 



