EAELIEE THEORIES CONNECTED WITH EVOLUTION. 43 



and irregular, and the idea of a single connected 

 chain of organisms was gradually given up. 

 The Circular System was then suggested as the 

 true System of Nature. This hypothesis supposes 

 that each three, five, or seven species, genera, etc., 

 formed with a central type, a complete circle 

 returning into itself, and touched on all sides 

 by surrounding circles. This system, though 

 a great advance upon the former method, also 

 proved to be incomplete. The fallacy of the 

 circular classifications founded on one or other 

 of the supposed sacred numbers has frequently 

 been exposed, and it is now clear that neither 

 the linear nor the circular arrangement can be 

 maintained, and that nature cannot be conformed 

 to any such regular system of classification. 



Some of the classical writers appear to have 

 propounded theories of nature more or less 

 allied to evolution,* but De Maillet in 1735 was 

 perhaps the first author who promulgated an 

 hypothesis similar to those now under discussion, 

 relating to the Origin of Species. Some para- 

 graphs in the Prolegomena to Linne's " Genera 

 Plantarum" (ed. 6, 1764), have been brought 



* Aristotle, "Physics," ch. 8. 



