M. de Quatrefnges on Charles Darwin. 471 



one nowadays, I fancy, would dream of denying the perfect 

 truth of what the English naturalist has said about the 

 struggle for existence and natural selection. Up to this point 

 he remained upon the solid ground of observation and experi- 

 ment. Afterwards these two guides of modern science sud- 

 denly fail him. Seeking to explain the origin of species, he 

 does not ask himself what is to be understood by that word. 

 I am not going to inquire here what is the true notion that 

 we ought to form of this fundamental group. But it was 

 necessary that, having to speak of it, Darwin should form 

 some precise idea of it. This he has not done; and this 

 is how he has ftillen into the course which led him into error. 

 It is as if a traveller following a safe though arid road, should 

 quit it, seduced by the mirage, and lose himself in the open 

 desert. 



But such a tra^'eller, however he may go astray, may dis- 

 cover, in the midst of the sandy wastes, rich oases the exis- 

 tence of which he will reveal. And this has been Darwin's 

 destiny. It is ])recisely under the influence of ideas that I 

 cannot accept, that he undertook and brought to an end some 

 of his most curious and most im])ortant works — works of 

 which, no doubt, he would ne^'er have thought, if he had 

 followed a more regular course. 



The question wdiich pressed itself most imperiously upon 

 Darwin is one of those which have occupied the greatest 

 minds, Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, as well as Buffon ; I mean 

 the variability of the species. It constitutes the basis of the 

 doctrine of the English naturalist ; he is incessantly occupied 

 by it, and seeks it always and everywhere in the two organic 

 kingdoms. It is by virtue of tliis special point &f view that he 

 was enabled to notice many facts which had escaped his pre- 

 decessors ; that he made experiments of which no one else had 

 dreamt; and that he attained unexpected but very positive 

 results, Avhicli pliysiology, botany, and zoology will hence- 

 forward have to take intu account. It is here that we find the 

 original work of Darwin — the w^ork that assures him a posi- 

 tion apart, and in the highest rank, among naturalists ; and, 

 what is remarkable, there is in this work instruction for every 

 body. Kowhere shall we find graver arguments to combat 

 the transformist doctrines which have themselves given rise to 

 these very investigations. On the other hand, nowhere shall 

 we meet with more solid arguments to oppose to exaggerated 

 morphologists. It will be understood that I cannot here de- 

 velop all my thoughts ; but I do not think that I exaggerate 

 in saying that, for a long time and perhaps always, whoever 

 shall takti up those general questions to which I allude, must, 

 in the first [dace, study the writings of Darwin. 



