LINNAEUS TO LAMARCK 31 



martyrs did not enter into his composition, and 

 the very next passage to the one above, trans- 

 lated reads — "But no! It is certain from revela- 

 tion that all animals have alike been favored 

 with the grace of an act of direct creation, and 

 that the first pair of every species issued fully 

 formed from the hands of the creator." 



When the Sorbonne thought it was being 

 fooled it compelled Buffon to recant publicly 

 and have his recantation printed. In that re- 

 cantation he announced, "I abandon every- 

 thing in my book respecting the formation of 

 the earth and generally all which may be 

 contrary to the narrative of Moses." 



The impression we get from reading Buffon, 

 is that he did not realize the importance of 

 those great evolutionary ideas which he stated 

 so well and repudiated as regularly. Had he 

 done so and stood by them, he would have 

 been the Darwin of his day, but he would in 

 all likelihood have spent the latter part of his 

 life in the Bastile. 



Not until forty years later do we meet the 

 real and valiant precursor of Darwin, albeit a 

 countryman of Buffon's, but with a more 

 profoundly philosophical mind and without his 

 fear. This was Jean Baptiste Lamarck, born 

 at Bazentin, France, 1744, and educated at the 

 college of the Jesuits at Amiens. He served in 



