EVOLUTION 45 



which they beHeved to have caused the differoncea of 

 species — * an influence which, to all appearance, would 

 produce in the millions of years and under the great variety 

 of conditions which geolo;^ical records imply, any amouiib 

 of change.' What is this but pure Darwinism, as the 

 drawing-room philosopher still understands the word ? 

 And yet it was written seven years before Darwin published 

 the ' Origin of Species.' 



The fact is, one might draw up quite a long list of 

 Darwinians before Darwin. Here are a few of them — - 

 Buffon, Lamarck, Goethe, Oken, Bates, Wallace, Lecoq, 

 Von Baer, Robert Chambers, Matthew, and Herbert 

 Spencer. Depend upon it, no one man ever yet of himself 

 discovered any tiling. As well say that Luther made the 

 German Reformation, that Lionardo made the Italian 

 Renaissance, or that Robespierre made the French Revo- 

 lution, as say that Charles Darwin, and Charles Darwin 

 alone, made the evolutionary movement, even in the 

 restricted field of life only. A thousand predecessors 

 worked up towards him ; a thousand contemporaries helped 

 to diffuse and to confirm his various principles. 



Charles Darwin added to the primitive evolutionary idea 

 the special notion of natural selection. That is to say, 

 he pointed out that while plants and animals vary perpe- 

 tually and vary indefinitely, all the varieties so produced are 

 not equally adapted to the circumstances of the species. 

 If the variation is a bad one, it tends to die out, because 

 every point of disadvantage tells against the individual in 

 the struggle for life. If the variation is a good one, it 

 tends to persist, because every point of advantage similarly 

 tells in the individual's favour in that ceaseless and viewless 

 battle. It was this addition to the evolutionary concept, 

 fortified by Darwin's powerful advocacy of the general prin- 

 ciple of descent with modification, that won over the whole 



