180 FROM THE GREEKS TO DARWIN 



or denial, are the favorite field of the speculations 

 of all these philosophers. 



There is no idea of filiation or of Evolution in 

 the true sense in Robinet's system of a gradual 

 change of a lower form into a higher; all the 

 lower, intermediate, and higher forms are held 

 to be the direct products of the germs of Na- 

 ture. In sexual reproduction, for example, the 

 two parents do not produce these germs, but are 

 simply the bearers of them, and generation con- 

 sists merely in placing these germs under cir- 

 cumstances in which they can develop. 



Ohen'^ (1776-1851) 



Lorenzo Oken approached the problems of 

 life with certain preconceived notions of how 

 things ought to be; as half metaphysician, half 

 naturalist, it is evident that most of his conclu- 

 sions were reached purely a priori, Haeckel ex- 

 travagantly writes in his praise that "no doctrine 

 approaches so nearly to the natural Theory of 

 Descent, newly established by Darwin, as Oken's 

 much-decried 'Natur-philosopJiie' " Yet in his 

 cellular conception of the primordial forms of 

 life, Oken was anticipated in part by Buff on, by 

 the elder Darwin and by Lamarck; as has been 



^ Oken was born at Baden and was educated at Wurtzburg; he 

 was later Professor in the University of Ziirich. 



