30 EVOLUTION 
produced from very small beginnings, increasing by 
the activity of its inherent principles, rather than by 
a sudden evolution of the whole by the almighty fire. 
What a magnificent idea of the infinite power of THE 
GREAT ARCHITECT! The Cause of causes. Parent of 
parents. Ens entium, 
De Maillet, writing in 1735, showed a definite idea 
of the production of existing species by the modifica- 
. tion of their predecessors. At the beginning of the 
nineteenth century similar speculations were published 
by Goethe and by Treviranus, and the latter was the 
first to apply the term ‘ biology ’ to the science of the 
phenomena of life. Lamarck about the same time pro- 
vided a definite theory as to the method by which the 
modification of species takes place. 
Before discussing Lamarck’s hypothesis and the 
alternative theories more recently proposed, it will be 
well to pass in review the evidence upon which is 
based our belief that the species of animals and plants 
have arisen through the modification of pre-existing 
species, and to show that the greater part of this evi- 
dence is quite independent of any views which we may 
adopt as to the actual method by which a particular 
species came into existence. And in the first place we 
may point out the entire absence of any evidence, direct 
or indirect, in favour of the alternative supposition of 
a special creation of each separate species. 
The evidence for evolution falls naturally into a 
number of fairly well defined sections; these have 
been so admirably summarized by Huxley in his 
essay on ‘Evolution in Biology,’ that we cannot well 
