VIEWS OF BUFFON 369 



fittest, the mere question of priority is a matter of small moment. 

 As a matter of fact it is now well known that this idea is very 

 much older than Buffon, and can be traced back, as Osborn 

 remarks, " to Empedocles, six centuries before Christ." l 

 Osborn also points out that : 



" Buffon 's ideas regarding the physical basis of heredity are 

 very similar to those of Democritus, and certainly contain the 

 basis of the conception of the Pangenesis theory of Darwin, for 

 he supposes that the elements of the germ-cells were gathered 

 from all parts of the body." 2 



So far we have presented the views of Buffon as those 

 of a thoroughgoing evolutionist. He had, however, apparently 

 another side to his mind, which is extremely difficult to under- 

 stand in the author of the foregoing passages. In the fourth 

 volume of his Natural History, after discussing the possible 

 modification of species, he continues : 



" But no, it is certain, by revelation, that all animals have 

 participated equally in the grace of creation, that the two first 

 of each species and of all the species came forth complete from 

 the hands of the Creator ; and we must believe that they were 

 then much the same as they are now represented to us by their 

 descendants." 3 



The doctrine of special creation could hardly be more clearly 

 expressed. 



Of course it is possible, as Samuel Butler suggests in his 

 interesting discussion of Buffon in " Evolution Old and New," 

 that such passages as this may be ironical, but it seems more 

 likely that Buffon vacillated between what was then regarded as 

 religious orthodoxy and the more rational views which he knew 

 so well how to express. Indeed, Butler himself remarks, apropos 

 of another passage : 



" This is Buffon's way. Whenever he has shown us clearly 

 what we ought to think, he stops short suddenly on religious 

 grounds." 4 



1 Op. cit., p. 117. 



2 Ibid., p. 135. 



3 " Histoire Naturelle," Tom. IV, p. 383. 



4 " Evolution Old and New " (New Issue, London, A. & C. Fifield), p. 115. This 

 work contains numerous passages translated from Buffon and Lamarck, and I 

 have found it of great use as a guide to the more salient passages in the voluminous 

 writings of the former. I have, however, in all cases made fresh translations from 

 the French. 



B. B B 



