342 FROM THE GREEKS TO DARWIN 



of the Buffon-St. Hilaire factor also evidently 

 began in course of the preparation of his great 

 work upon 'variation.' He was influenced by his 

 own wider range of observation, and, later, by 

 the observations of Wagner, of Allen, and oth- 

 ers. As early as 1862 he wrote to Hooker:^ 



I hardly know why I am a little sorry, but my 

 present work is leading me to believe rather more in 

 the direct action of physical conditions. I presume 

 I regret it, because it lessens the glory of natural 

 selection, and is so confoundedly doubtful. Perhaps 

 I shall change again when I get all my facts under 

 one point of view, and a pretty hard job this will be. 



Fourteen years later Darwin had positively in- 

 cluded Buffon's factor of the direct action of en- 

 vironment among the causes of Evolution.^ In 

 1876 he wrote to Moriz Wagner:^ 



When I wrote the 'Origin,' and for some years 

 afterward, I could find little good evidence of the 

 direct action of the environment ; now there is a large 



^Life and Letters. Letter, Nov. 24, 1862. 



20ne of the author's correspondents [C. H. Ward] believes 

 that Darwin's change of mind toward the Buffonian and La- 

 marckian factors is overstated in the present volume. As to Buf- 

 fon, Darwin wrote to Semper Nov. 26, 1878: 



"When I published the sixth edition of the Origin ... I went 

 as far as I could, perhaps too far in agreement with Wagner; 

 since that time I have seen no reason to change my mind." 



In regard to the Lamarckian factor, Darwin's mind never 

 changed so far as to lessen the supreme importance he attached to 

 natural selection. 



^Life and Letters. Letter to Wagner, Oct. 13, 1876. 



