192 FROM THE GREEKS TO DARWIN 



'system of nature' in complete accord with the 

 philosophical spirit and biological knowledge of 

 his day, while Buffon's evolutionary ideas were 

 in advance of his day and were incapable of 

 proof in the existing stage of knowledge. 



Krause^ points out that as early as 1755 Buf- 

 fon found in comparative anatomy many diffi- 

 culties in the special creation theory: 



The pig does not appear to have been formed 

 upon an original, special, and perfect plan, since it 

 is a compound of other animals ; it has evidently use- 

 less parts, or rather parts of which it cannot make 

 any use — toes all the bones of which are perfectly 

 formed, and which, nevertheless, are of no service to 

 it. Nature is far from subjecting herself to final 

 causes in the formation of her creatures.^ 



In always looking for a purpose or design in 

 every part, Buff on continues^; "We fail to see 

 that we thus deprive philosophy of its true char- 

 acter, and misrepresent its object, which con- 

 sists in the knowledge of the 'how' of things, the 

 way in which Nature acts." This thought was 

 reiterated by Goethe. 



In 1761 we find that Buffon had advanced to a 

 belief in the frequent mutability of species under 

 the direct action of environment: "How many 

 species, being perfected or degenerated {'dena- 



lErnst Krause: Erasmus Darmin, 1880, pp. 147, 148. 

 ^Histoire Naturelle, 1755, t. V, pp. 103-4. 



