312 FROM THE GREEKS TO DARWE^J 



ones, immediately begins to undergo certain changes 

 fitting it for the new conditions. . . . There is at 

 work a modifying influence of the kind they assign 

 as the cause of these specific differences. 



The Progressionists 



Robert Chambers, Richard Owen, and in a 

 measure Louis Agassiz, should be classed as 

 'Progressionists.' The first-named has been thus 

 aptly classified because of his belief in an 'internal 

 perfecting' or 'progressing' principle. 



Chambers (1802-1871) 



In 1844 appeared in England The Vestiges of 

 the Natural History of Creation, the only vol- 

 ume wholly devoted to Evolution in the half -cen- 

 tury between the Philosophie Zoologique of 1809 

 and the Origin of Species of 1859. Published 

 anonymously, it was attributed to Robert Cham- 

 bers because of his liberal views and considerable 

 knowledge of geology.^ 



Although intelligently and reverently writ- 

 ten, the Vestiges met a scathing reception from 

 the reviewers upon the score of false science and 

 infidelity. We may, in part, excuse the author 

 for preserving the somewhat invalorous incog- 



lln 1884, in publishing the 12th edition of this work, the editor, 

 Alexander Ireland, gave an account of the authorship, as there 

 was no longer any reason for concealing it. 



