294 EVOLUTION IN BIOLOGY. [LEOT. 



principles established inductively by the study of the 

 present course of nature. Somewhat later, Maupertuis 1 

 suggested a curious hypothesis as to the causes of 

 variation, which he thinks may be sufficient to account 

 for the origin of all animals from a single pair. 

 Kobinet 2 followed out much the same line of thought 

 as De Maillet, but less soberly ; and Bonnet's specula- 

 tions in the " Palinge*nesie," which appeared in 1769, 

 have already been mentioned. Buffon (1753-1778), 

 at first a partisan of the absolute immutability of 

 species, subsequently appears to have believed that 

 larger or smaller groups of species have been pro- 

 duced by the modification of a primitive stock ; but 

 he contributed nothing to the general doctrine of 

 evolution. 



Erasmus Darwin ("Zoonomia," 1794), though a 

 zealous evolutionist, can hardly be said to have made 

 any real advance on his predecessors ; and, notwith- 

 standing that Goethe (1791-4) had the advantage of 

 a wide knowledge of morphological facts, and a true 

 insight into their signification, while he threw all the 

 power of a great poet into the expression of his 

 conceptions, it may be questioned whether he supplied 

 the doctrine of evolution with a firmer scientific basis 

 than it already possessed. Moreover, whatever the 

 value of Goethe's labours in that field, they were not 

 published before 1820, long after evolutionism had 



1 " Systeme de la Nature." " Essai sur la Formation des Corps 

 Organises," 1751, xiv. 



2 " Considerations Philosophiques sur la gradation naturelle des 

 formes de 1'etre ; ou les essak de la nature qui apprend a faire Phomme," 

 1768. 



