DARWIN 305 



blage of living beings. Cuvier's teaching was made 

 as widely known in this country as it was on the 

 Continent, for Jameson issued a number of editions 

 of a translation of the famous introduction, under 

 the title of "An Essay on the Theory of the Earth" ; 

 and, as von Zittel justly remarks, "Cuvier's cata- 

 strophic theory was received with special cordiality 

 in England." 13y none certainly was it adopted more 

 unreservedly than by Darwin's teachers and friends, 

 Henslow and Sedgwick. 



Darwin, in his Historical Sketch of the Prog- 

 ress of Opinion, and Haeckel, in his Schopfungs- 

 geschichte, have outlined the views of these mis- 

 cellaneous contributors to the evolution theory. 

 The most surprising thought raised by a review 

 of the original works and of the passages quoted 

 by the above authors is that so many naturalists 

 came near the theory and were neither captured 

 by it nor drawn on to its further serious expo- 

 sition as the key to the history of life. Only one 

 writer between 1809 and 1858 came out in a 

 really vigorous and sustained defense of the evo- 

 lutionary system of the Universe. This was the 

 then unknown author of the Vestiges of Crea- 

 tion.^ 



We are now familiar with the main sources of 

 suggestion and can consider some of these writ- 

 ers more critically than did Darwin or Haeckel, 



iRobert Chambers. See pp. 312-16. 



