80 THE KIDDLE OF THE UNIVERSE. 



questions " — the problem of the true character and 

 origin of man himself. 



If we compare the two great founders of trans- 

 formism, we find in Lamarck a preponderant inclina- 

 tion to deduction, and to forming a complete monistic 

 scheme of nature ; in Darwin we have a predominant 

 application of induction, and a prudent concern to 

 establish the different parts of the theory of selection 

 as firmly as possible on a basis of observation and 

 experiment. While the French scientist far outran 

 the then limits of empirical knowledge, and rather 

 sketched the programme of future investigation, the 

 English empiricist was mainly preoccupied about 

 securing a unifying principle of interpretation for a 

 mass of empirical knowledge which had hitherto 

 accumulated without being understood. We can thus 

 understand how it was that the success of Darwin 

 was just as overwhelming as that of Lamarck was 

 evanescent. Darwin, however, had not only the signal 

 merit of bringing all the results of the various biological 

 sciences to a common focus in the principle of descent, 

 and thus giving them a harmonious interpretation, 

 but he also discovered, in the principle of selection, 

 that direct cause of transformism which Lamarck had 

 missed. In applying, as a practical breeder, the 

 experience of artificial selection to organisms in a 

 state of nature, and in recognising in the " struggle 

 for life " the selective principle of natural selection, 

 Darwin created his momentous " theory of selection," 

 which is what we properly call Darwinism. 



One of the most pressing of the many important 

 tasks which Darwin proposed to modern biology was 

 the reform of the zoological and botanical system. 

 Since the innumerable species of animals and plants 



