20 THE MEANING OF EVOLUTION 



had held back the Lamarckian idea in Europe. For 

 the brilliant Cuvier simply laughed before his stu- 

 dents at each "new folly" of Buffon and of Lamarck. 

 Under this ridicule the influence of both men with- 

 ered and died. 



A little later the great poet, Goethe, turned his 

 attention to the problem of evolution, giving an in- 

 teresting account of the metamorphoses of plants. He 

 declared, also, that the human skull is a continuation 

 of the backbones of the neck, and that these bones 

 have been transformed into the present skull. But 

 his great genius as a poet drew his attention into 

 other fields. Haeckel points out that if Goethe had 

 known Lamarck's work his genius would have gained 

 for the "Philosophic Zoologique" the interest and re- 

 spect of the reading world. But Cuvier laughed it 

 out of court, and only in comparatively modern times, 

 since Darwin's work has set the world thinking anew, 

 is Lamarck's career recognized at its true value. 

 Lamarck should have been the founder of the evolu- 

 tion theory. But the time was not quite ripe, and it 

 remained for Charles Darwin to announce his idea, 

 sustained and fortified by years of careful observation 

 and thoughtful reflection. 



