128 EVOLUTIONISTS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 



THE GREAT NATURALISTS. 



The first of the great naturalists, Linnaeus and 

 Buffon, were born, only four days apart, early in 

 the eighteenth century, or eighty-one years after 

 the death of Bacon. 



In the environment of the idea of Evolution, 

 LINN^US (1707-1778) may be considered not as a 

 positive but as one of the negative factors, as founding 

 the ' school of facts ' of which Cuvier was later the dis- 

 tinguished leader. Linnaeus had been preceded as 

 a systematist by Wotton in 1552, one of the last of 

 the Aristotelian zoologists ; by Gessner of the same 

 period, and one of the first zoologists who shook off 

 the traditions of Aristotle; by Aldrovandi in 1599; 

 by Sperling in 1661 ; and by Ray, who first clearly 

 pointed out the two criteria of a species, as per- 

 manence of form and appearance, and non-fertility 

 with other species. Ray was followed by a number 

 of dry, descriptive writers, who worked upon the 

 larger groups of animals and plants. Finally the 

 turning-point to modern Zoology and Botany was 

 marked by the great work of Linnaeus, the Systema 

 Nature. The binary system of nomenclature 

 therein proposed was a mere tool for the expression 

 of his broad conceptions of the relation of animals 

 and plants to each other. Species were in his 

 mind the units of direct Creation ; each species bore 

 the impression of the thought of the Creator, not 

 only in its external form but in its anatomical struc- 



