186 EVOLUTION 



win refers to thirty-four more or less evolu- 

 tionist authors in his Historical Sketch, and 

 the list might be added to. Especially 

 when we come near 1858 do the numbers 

 increase, and we must never forget that 

 Herbert Spencer not only marshalled the 

 arguments for Evolution in a very forcible 

 way in 1852, but applied the formula in 

 detail in his "Principles of Psychology" in 

 1855. We must also remember that the 

 genetic view of nature was insinuating itself 

 in regard to other than biological orders of 

 facts, here a little and there a little, and that 

 the scientific temper had ripened consider- 

 ably since the days when Cuvier laughed 

 Lamarck out of court. 



We have inserted this historical reference 

 to pre-Darwinian evolutionists, since it is 

 important to shake ourselves free from all 

 creationist appreciations of Darwin; but it 

 would be a perversion of history to suggest 

 that he simply entered into the labours of 

 his predecessors. In point of fact, he knew 

 very little about them till after he had been 

 for years at work. Let us ask rather how 

 it was that Darwin succeeded in winning 

 a world-wide acceptance of the evolution 

 idea, where so many others had failed! 



Because, in the first place, he had clear 

 visions "pensees de la jeunesse, executees 



