228 FROM THE GREEKS TO DARWIN 



showed him the greatest affection; after Lamarck 

 was confined to his room, it is said she never left 

 the house. Lamarck was thus saddened in his old 

 age by extreme poverty and by the harsh recep- 

 tion of his transmutation theories, in the truth of 

 which he felt the most absolute conviction. 



Lamarck, as the founder of the complete mod- 

 ern theory of descent, is the most prominent fig- 

 ure between Aristotle and Darwin. One cannot 

 compare his PhilosopJiie Zoologique with all 

 previous and contemporary contributions to the 

 evolution theory, or learn the extraordinary dif- 

 ficulties under which he labored and that this 

 work was put forth only a few years after he had 

 turned from botany to zoology, without gaining 

 the greatest admiration for his genius. No one 

 has been more misunderstood, or judged with 

 more partiality by over or under praise. The 

 stigma placed upon his writings by Cuvier, who 

 greeted every fresh edition of his works as a 

 'nouvelle folie,' and the disdainful allusions to 

 his theory by Charles Darwin (the only writer 

 of whom Darwin ever spoke in this tone) long 

 placed him in the light of a purely extravagant, 

 speculative thinker. His PhilosopJiie Zoologique 

 of 1809 attracted but little attention until Comte 

 appreciated its value in his own PhilosopJiie 

 Positive. However, as a fresh instance of the cer- 

 tainty with which men of genius finally obtain 



