424 LAMARCK, HIS LIFE AND WORK 



We have cited the foregoing conclusions and opin- 

 ions of upwards of forty working biologists, many of 

 whom were brought up, so to speak, in the Darwin- 

 ian faith, to show that the pendulum of evolutionary 

 thought is swinging away from the narrow and re- 

 stricted conception of natural selection, pure and 

 simple, as the sole or most important factor, and 

 returning in the direction of Lamarckism. 



We may venture to say of Lamarck what Huxley 

 once said of Descartes, that he expressed " the 

 thoughts which will be everybody's two or three 

 centuries after" him. Only the change of belief, 

 due to the rapid accumulation of observed facts, 

 has come in a period shorter than " two or three 

 centuries;" for, at the end of the very century 

 in which Lamarck, whatever his crudities, vague- 

 ness, and lack of observations and experiments, 

 published his views, wherein are laid the foundations 

 on which natural selection rests, the consensus of 

 opinion as to the direct and indirect influence of the 

 environment, and the inadequacy of natural selec- 

 tion as an initial factor, was becoming stronger and 

 deeper- rooted each year. 



We must never forget or underestimate, however, 

 the inestimable value of the services rendered by 

 Darwin, who by his patience, industry, and rare 

 genius for observation and experiment, and his 

 powers of lucid exposition, convinced the world of 

 the truth of evolution, with the result that it has 

 transformed the philosophy of our day. We are all 

 of us evolutionists, though we may differ as to the 

 nature of the efficient causes. 



