B UFFON— FULLER Q UO TA TIONS. 1 1 5 



light of our reason doth but suffice to show us a little 

 probability; whereas the forethought of animals is 

 unerring, and must spring from some principle far higher 

 than any we know of through our own experience. 

 Does not such a consequence, I ask, prove repugnant 

 alike to religion and common sense ? " * 



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

 clearly what we ought to think, he stops short sud- 

 denly on religious grounds. It is incredible that the 

 writer who at the very commencement of his work 

 makes man take his place among the animals, and 

 who sees a subtle gradation extending over all living 

 beings " from the most perfect creature " — who must be 

 man — "to the most entirely inorganic substance" — I 

 say it is incredible that such a writer should not see 

 that he had made out a stronger case in favour of the 

 reason of animals than against it. 



According to him, the test whether a thing is to 

 have such and such a name is whether it looks fairly 

 like other things to which the same name is given ; 

 if it does, it is to have the name ; if it does not, it is 

 not. No one accepted this lesson more heartily than 

 Dr. Darwin, whose shrewd and homely mind, if not so 

 great as Buffon's, was still one of no common order. 

 Let us see the view he took of this matter. He 

 writes : — 



" If we were better acquainted with the histories of 



those insects which are formed into societies, as the 



bees, wasps, and ants, I make no doubt but we should 



find that their arts and improvements are not so similar 



* Tom. iv. p. 103, 1753. 



I 2 



