MR. GRANT ALLEN'S "CHARLES DARWIN." 247 



theory from the rank of a mere plausible and happy- 

 guess to the rank of a highly elaborate and almost 

 universally accepted biological system'' (pp. 3—5). 



We all admit the value o£ Mr. Darwin's work as 

 having led to the general acceptance of evolution. 

 No one who remembers average middle-class opinion 

 on this subject before i860 will deny that it was Mr. 

 Darwin who brought us all round to descent with 

 modification ; but Mr. Allen caunot rightly say that 

 evolution had only existed before Mr. Darwin's time 

 in " a shadowy, undeveloped state," or as " a mere 

 plausible and happy guess." It existed in the same form 

 as that in which most people accept it now, and had 

 been carried to its extreme development, before Mr. 

 Darwin's father had been born. It is idle to talk of 

 BufFon's work as " a mere plausible and happy guess," 

 or to imply that the first volume of the " Philosophie 

 Zoologique " of Lamarck was a less full and suflScient 

 demonstration of descent with modification than the 

 " Origin of Species " is. It has its defects, shortcomings, 

 and mistakes, but it is an incomparably sounder work 

 than the " Origin of Species ; " and though it contains 

 the deplorable omission of any reference to Buffon, 

 Lamarck does not first grossly misrepresent Buffon, 

 and then tell him to go away, as Mr. Darwin did 

 to the author of the " Vestiges " and to Lamarck. If 

 Mr. Darwin was believed and honoured for saying 

 much the same as Lamarck had said, it was because 

 Lamarck had borne the brunt of the laughing. The 

 " Origin of Species " was possible because the " Ves- 

 tiges " had prepared the way for it. The " Vestiges " 



